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M. AUGUSTE GOFFART. 



THE 



ENSILAGE OF MAIZE, 



AND OTHER 



GREEN FODDER CROPS, 

BY 

M. AUaUSTE GOEEART, 

Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, Metnher of the Central Agricultural Society of France, ^c. 



PARIS, 1877. 



translIteij ' :feiir ' 
J. B. BROWN^. 

Together with a History of the Introduction and the Present Condition 
of the Art in the United States. 



NEW YORK 
1879. 



^3^^^ 

A^^ 



Entered e year 1879, 

Published by 

J. B. BROWN, 
In the O ^^ Beekman Street, New York Washington. 



Pat. OfiQoe UliU 



STKKEOTyPED AND PRINTEP BY 

THK NATIONAL PKXKTING COMPANY, 

10, JS, 20 ANi> 22 Chamreks Strekt, 

NEW YORK. 



TO THE 



MEMBERS 



OF THE 




DE FRANCE,* 



It is to you that I dedicate this little hooh ; to you who have 
received so favorably my early efforts in this matter. 

You ivill see that the author has not slept upon his first success^ 
and that during the ]}ast two years he has made much progress. 

It is for you to judge 'if the end is entirely attained, as he he- 
lieves it to he, or if he should continue to seek further improvement 
in this art which he considers notv perfectly acquired in agrictdtural 
practice. 

At any rate, he now submits his work to your impartial 
judgment. 

AUGUSTE GOFFART. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Vocabulary or Feench Words 7 

Preface 9 

Chapter I. — Advantages to be derived from the Preservation of Green 

Fodder by Ensilage 11 

" II. — ^Varieties of Maize 13 

" III. & IV. — Land suitable to the Production of Maize 14 

'' V. & VL—Methods-of Culture 17 

" VII.— Yield of Maize 18 

" VIIL— Food Value of Maize 18 

" IX. — Prickly Comfrey of the Caucasus 22 

" X. — ^Processes for Assuring the Preservation of Green Maize. 23 

" XI. — How the Green Maize should be cut 25 

" XII. — Proportion of Straw 27 

" XIII. — Compression of the Silos 29 

" XIV. — The Proper Hydrometric Condition 30 

" XV. — ^Effect of Ensilage upon Fodder 30 

" XVL— How to Build a Silo 33 

" XVII.— How to Fill a Silo 34 

" XVIII.— The new Stables at Burtin, and their Silos 36 

" XIX.— Conclusions- Effects of Frost 38 

Extract from M. Goffart's Speech at Blois, May 8, 1875 40 



APPENDIX. 

Chapter I. — Eeport of the Central Agricultural Society of France... 45 

" II. — ^Extract from the Journal of Agriculture, France 49 

" III. — Extract from the Journal of Agriculture, France 50 



C CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Chapter IV. — The Analysis and Composition of Maize. . . . , 51 

" V. — Extract from the Report to the Agricultural Club of 

Romorantin 59 

'' VI. — Extract from the Report to the Central Agricultural 

Committee of Sologne 60 

ii VII. — Extract from the Speech of President of Central Agri- 

cultural Committee of Sologne Announcing the 
Award of the Decoration of the Legion of Honor to 

■" Monsieur Goflfart 02 

Introduction of Ensilage to the United States, by Francis Morris, Esq. 63 

Letter from Mons. Goffart, Dec. 4, 1878 65 

Conclusions by the Translator 67 

Composition of Maize (grain) 71 

Disadvantage of Drying Corn-fodder 71 

Food Ingredients — Cliemical Terms Explained 72 

Farming for Profit , 73 

Pearl Millet 76 

The Ensilage Cutter 77 



VOCABULARY OF FRENCH WORDS, 



PRESERVED IN TRANSLATION, SOME OF WHICH SHOULD BE ADOPTED INTO 

OUR OWN LANGUAGE. 



Centimetre. — j^Vo^o inch ; about -^^ inch. 

Centime. — -^-^ of English penny, or \ American cent. 

Ensilage. — The act of compressmg into pits, trenches, or compartments called 
silos ; also the green crops so preserved. 

Franc. — ISj^ cents. 

Hectare. — 2j^*J^ ^"^re, or 100 French ares. 

Hectolitre. — 22 gallons ; 2f bushels. 

Kilogramme. — "iri^iob 1^- advoirdupois ; about 2 lb. 3^^ oz. 

Litre. — Ij^ol) pi^t; 01 cubic inches. 

Maize. — The corn-plant. 

Jfefre.— 3.2808992 ft. ; about 3ft. 3i inches. 

Silo. — Excavation, pit, or trench, hollowed in the ground (Littre), or any com- 
partment used for storing green fodder in an air-tight manner. 



PREFACE. 



In beginning, four years ago, my publications on the 
subject of ensilage, I did not deceive myself, nor hide from 
the world that my success was far from being complete, and 
that my task was not on the eve of being accomplished. 
Since that time I have worked incessantly to perfect my early 
methods. I have rectified, one by one, my erroneous ideas as 
to the modifications that the fodder undergoes in the silo, and 
in consequence I have made various changes in my early 
processes. Since my first writings I have been compelled to 
renounce certain views which I believed to be indisputable. 
It is important to be able to confess to ourselves when we are 
mistaken, and, above all, to confess to others, without self- 
love, and with no other desire but for the truth. Thanks to 
this freedom from the prejudice of preconceived opinion, I 
have corrected my early erroneous views, and I can to-day 
recommend to my agricultural brothers a complete system of 
ensilage, applicable to all green crops without distinction, and 
can guarantee to them an entire success if they will follow 
to the letter all my directions. For many years I have been 
interested in agricultural as well as industrial and commer- 
cial affairs. At the age of 24 years I built, in Belgium, the 
high furnaces of Monceaux, one of the most important estab- 



10 PREFACE. 

lishments in the country, and for forty years I have been one 
of the directors. In 1846 I acquired the domain of Burtin in 
Sologne, which contained about 1,200 hectares. Since that 
time my Hfe has been divided between agricultural and in- 
dustrial pursuits. It was at Burtin, in 1852, that I com- 
menced to stvidy practically the important problem of the 
preservation of fodder. 

The great passion of my whole life has been work. It 
will only be extinguished with my life. To that passion I 
owe the honor of having attached my name to an agricultural 
system of which the importance will be each day better ap- 
preciated, and will increase without ceasing. 



Culture and Ensilage of Maize, 

AND OTHER GREEN FODDER. 



CHAPTER I. 



ADVANTAGES TO BE DEEIVED FROM THE PRESERVATION 
OF GREEN FODDER BY ENSILAGE, OVER THE METHOD 
OF PRESERVATION BY DRYING. 

If there is one fact recognized by all agriculturists, it is 
that a certain quantity of grass, which, consumed in a green 
state represents an ascertained nutritive value, loses a consider- 
able portion of that value in passing into the state of hay in- 
tended for the winter sustenance of animals. 

The cow, which gives us in summer, while feeding on 
green grass^ such excellent milk, and butter of such agreeable 
color and flavor, furnishes us in winter, when slie eats the 
same grass converted into hay, an inferior quality of milk, 
and pale, insipid butter. What modifications has this grass 
undergone in changing to hay? These modifications are 
numerous. It is sufficient to cross a meadow at the time when 
the new-mown grass is undergoing desiccation in order to 
recognize that it is losing an enormous quantity of its sub- 
stance that exhales in the air in agreeable odors, but which, 
if they remained in the plant, would serve as a condiment, fa- 
cilitating digestion and assimilation. 

All stock-raisers, those of Sologne especially, know how 
rapidly our young cattle increase in weight in summer on 
green pasture, which, converted into hay and devoted to their 



12 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

nourishment in winter, scarcely keeps them in statu quo ; hay 
given judiciously does not always prevent them from becom- 
ing* lean. 

Therefore the sole fact of desiccation accomplished by fine 
weather, in the best conditions, causes the loss of a consider- 
able part of essential substance. This loss, added to the 
physical modifications which render mastication and digestion 
of the hay more difiicult than of the grass, and consequently 
assimilation less complete, merits the most serious attention 
on the part of those who are interested in agiicultural affairs. 

The losses which I have mentioned are far from being all 
that result from our method of transforming grass into hay. 

Rains, ofttimes prolonged, coming upon the harvest, the 
absence of sufficient heat in autumn, are powerful causes of 
deterioration of hay. 

What agriculturist has not seen a hundred times his hay, 
injured by rain, deprived of its richest and most assimilative 
elements ? The rain prolonged, the hay is invaded by a species 
of nauseous rot, which disgusts cattle and causes formidable 
maladies when hunger forces them to eat it. If these things 
occur to the common fodder crops — clover, lucern, sainfoin, 
etc. — what would happen to the fodder crops of high growth 
and great yield, such as maize and sorgho 1 Never in otu- 
temperate climate could we obtain for these a sufficient desic- 
cation by the sun. 

These are the grave inconveniences which from time 
inunemorial have induced agriculturists to seek some new 
method of preservation for their fodder. It is nearly a century 
since the German, Klapmayer, called the attention of the agri- 
cultural world to his system of conversion of grass into hay, 
and which still bears his name — ''Brown hay, Klapmayer 
method." This method, which made a great noise at the time 
of its appearance, has had its seasons of popularity. It has 
been successively taken up, abandoned, again taken up ; but 
it has in fact never been firmly implanted into agricultural 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OP MAIZE. 13 

practice. For my part, at the commencenient of my agricul- 
tural career, more than thirty years ago, I pursued some expe- 
riments perseveringly through two campaigns, in which I fol- 
lowed faithfully the directions of Klapmaj^er. How many 
times have I arisen in the middle of the night, with one of my 
workmen, in order to satisfy myself, thermometer in hand, that 
my grass, gathered in cocks larger or smaller, did not exceed 
the degree of heat prescribed as the extreme limit to insure 
excellent preservation. I never succeeded, and I doubt if any 
other persons have been any more fortunate. 

A few years later I gave my attention to the culture of 
maize, and I began to seek for it a system of preservation 
by ensilage. I have therein entirely succeeded, but only after 
thousands of experiments, which have continued not less than 
a quarter of a century. It is that all agriculturists may 
profit by the experience acquired, often at my cost, upon this 
important subject, that I have written this Manual. 



11. 

VARIETIES OF MAIZE. 



In order to have early fresh maize to give to cattle in sum- 
mer, I sow in May a half hectare of forty-day maize. This 
is a variety of early maize, but of moderate yield. Its pre- 
cocity is its principal and nearly its only merit. For my en- 
silages I only cultivate the large foreign maize, which I will 
describe. 

The maize of Nicaragua holds, evidently, the first place; 
its great height, the great number of large leaves, which cover 
it from root to top ; the product in weight, superior to all, con- 
stitutes an incontestable superiority. Next comes the maize of 



14 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

Algeria, recently imported into our African colony under the 
name of Caragua, and cultivated by M. de Bonand, the skill- 
ful agriculturist who presides over the Society of Agricul- 
ture of Algiers. This maize is excellent in every respect ; the 
sprouting sure, the product considerable. It is to be desired 
that Algeria should prepare to send it to us in large quantities. 
I have sown no other kind the past year. 

Translator's Note. — M. Goffart devotes several chapters to the consideration of 
the subject of procuring seed from Central America, which is rendered difficult by the 
flies that infest tropical grain. It would seem that in order to have large corn-stalks 
in France it is necessary to use imported seed. As the United States produces some 
very tall corn-stalks, I have written him to know why the inventive ability of the 
farmers of the United States has not been set at work to produce a seed corn that 
would yield large and tall stalks in France. 

The author speaks of a Hungarian maize which exceeds three metres in height 
and twenty centimetres (or eight inches) in circumference. He also mentions Dent 
de cheval (horse-tooth) as being sold at a moderate price. This is doubtless our 
Dent corn (the word dent originally meaning a tooth). He seems to give preference 
to the seed raised in Algeria, of American origin, and called Caragua. 



III. AND TV. 

LANDS SUITABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF MAIZE. 

I DO not pretend that all soil is adapted to a profitable 
culture of maize. There are certain indispensable conditions of 
the physical, hygrometric and chemical state of the soil, the 
absence of which wiU render impossible the profitable culture 
of this fodder crop ; but in most instances it will answer to in- 
crease, for the first two crops, the manuring and dressing, in 
order to obtain a large production, which will give a sort of 
impetus to the new culture, and will be the point of de23arture 
of a most happy transformation. As in a machine, however 
well constructed, it is necessary to overcome at first the force 
of inertia. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 15 

At Burtin my soil possesses some qualities very favorable 
for this culture, but for four years my processes left much to 
be desired, and Avithin two years I have made more progress 
than I had obtained during twenty years preceding. Tlie 
large quantity of maize that the increase of this culture and 
my perfected processes have placed every year at my disposal 
has permitted me to double the number of my stock ; then 
each animal which formerly produced 13,000 kilogrammes of 
dung has produced, since it has been better nourished, nearly 
20,000 kilogrammes. Therefore, if my maize requires abund- 
ant manuring it causes a production of manure more than suf- 
ficient. In fact, a hectare of maize, properly treated and suc- 
cessfully preserved, yields a product of more that 50,000 kilo- 
grammes of manure, and absorbs hardly one-third of this quan- 
tity. It is necessary to add that each week I spread upon my 
dung-heaps 100 kilogTammes of phosphate. This practice 
gives excellent results, above all in Sologne, where our soil, 
naturally very poor in phosphoric acid, requires that we should 
furnish it in every possible form. Some foreboding people 
predicted four years ago that I would lose all my stock if I 
continued to feed them exclusively on maize throughout the 
year. I have continued to do so, and all my animals enjoy 
excellent health, without even a shadow of a malady. One of 
the most valuable properties of maize is the power of self suc- 
cession almost indefinite. Some of my finest maize occupies 
a field which, during the past eighteen years, has borne 
fourteen harvests of that plant without giving any signs of 
weariness ; on the contrary, the later yield is better than the 
former. All the requirement is to give to the land suitable 
manuring, restoring each year the equivalent of that which is 
taken off. Potash is the predominating component of maize. 
Animals consuming it assimilate very little potash, and the 
dung-heap restores to the soil nearly all of it that has been 
removed in the crop. Another plant, much cultivated in So- 
logne, the hemp, jDossesses also the property of eternalizing 



16 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

itself upon the same field. Each farm has its hemp field, 
which, for centuries, occupies the same ground. 

The soil which is best adapted to the culture of maize is 
of medium consistency, rather light than heavy, moist without 
being wet, rich in alluvial matter, and therefore of a dark 
color. It is remarkable that our poor Sologne possesses an 
abundance of this kind of land, as if Heaven had wished to 
give it some sort of compensation for all its other inferiorities. 
Heavy soil is equally well adapted to produce very fine maize, 
but requires more labor; for it is necessary to bring it to a 
state of fine pulverization, at the risk of the seed not sprouting, 
which is always difficult in compact earth. In general terms, 
maize will succeed wherever beets do well, with the same 
conditions as to manuring and top-dressing. But maize can- 
not, of course, have the pretension to compete with advantage 
against such a rival ; above all, in the rich countries where 
for so long a time it has been cultivated as a plant that is both 
valuable in commerce (sugar) and for fodder. In those parts 
maize can only make for itself a modest place, as a means of 
varying a little the food of our animals. 

But in those countries, such as the South of France and 
Algeria, where the excessive heat causes the beet to fail, there 
maize will render immense service. Preserved by ensilage, it 
will assure at all times to the cattle sufficient food, instead of 
those alternations of abundance and scarcity which often have 
such sorrowful results. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 17 

V. AND VI. 

METHODS OF CULTURE. 

Formerly I planted my maize in ridges, which has been 
the sole method practiced for a long time in the fields of om' 
Sologne. The ridge in shallow soil but little dug up is an 
excellent method for protecting the fall seeding against the 
wet, so destructive in winter. But as a spring crop it is neces- 
sary to give up the ridges entirely, and to replace them by 
beds more or less extensive. These, by yielding less evapo- 
ration, provide better than the ridge against the dryness of 
summer. Another motive, more serious, pleads also in favor 
of beds. When well compressed by a heavy roller, they pro- 
tect the seed, more eifectually than the ridge, against one of 
the most to be dreaded plagues of this culture. At the mo- 
ment when the little shoot makes its appearance out of the 
earth, the birds come in crowds, in order to jjull up and eat the 
grain which adheres to and comes out of the soil Avith it, 
especially when the soil is light, as it commonly is in Sologne. 
I have lost several times a third, and sometimes a half, of my 
maize, devoured thus at the birth, by crows, pies, and pigeons, 
which swarm in our fields. A good rolling of my beds with a 
heavy stone roller is an efi^ective preservative against the 
danger which I have mentioned. When the earth has been 
well packed down by the roller, the bird that pulls iip the 
shoot of maize finds that it breaks off near the ground without 
being followed by the grain, wdiicli is all that lias an}' value 
to him. Deceived in his hope, the bird gives up very quickly 
an ungrateful labor which refuses him the reward upon Avliich 
he had reckoned. Besides this, the roller is jin instrument of 
security for our light soil. It strengthens the hold of the 
plant upon the soil, and it has saved, twenty times, my crops 
that were in danger by being laid bare. 

The use of the seeding machine is the surest and least 



18 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

costly method. It economizes the seed, which often costs so 
dear, and it gives regular and equal lines, which render the 
after cultivation very easy. For want of a machine, I have 
obtained very good results in distributing the seed by hand, 
by women, who follow the laborer and only put the seed in 
every second fm-row. I obtained thus wider rows, but regu- 
larly spaced and easily cultivated. 

Note. — The translator supposes that the gang-plow is used in this case. The 
French plow of this kind excelled even our American plows at the Paris Exposition, 
and is to be introduced into this country. The remainder of this chapter is de- 
voted to comparison between drilled and broadcast sowing, which is omitted as 
valueless to the American farmer. The mechanical genius of the United States and 
Canada, fostered by the Patent Office and rewarded by the immense demand for its 
results, has settled this question to the great relief of the arms and backs of the 
laborers. 



VII. 

YIELD OF MAIZE. 



Thanks to the care that I have specified, I obtain from 
my maize an enormous yield. In the past five years the 
minimum has been 75,000 kilogrammes per hectare, and the 
maximum 415,000. The average 3deld has been 90,000 kilo- 
gi'ammes per hectare. 

Note. — About 40 tons to the acre. 



vm. 

FOOD VALUE OF MAIZE. 



It is only by experience that we can solve the question 
of the alimentary value of maize. I can assert, however, that 
at my home at Burtin, in the way in which I prepare it, 
maize with one-tenth of its weight of oat straw maintains my 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 19 

animals in perfect condition. It would be, I confess, going 
too far to say that maize alone has the faculty of making verv 
fat animals for fairs, or for high quality butcher stalls. Cows 
which are not being milked quickly take a condition entirely 
satisfactory to our country butchers, who are, as a class, less 
exacting than those of the city. But for perfect fattening it is 
necessary to add other aliments to the regular ration, such as 
beet-pulp. I have tried the experiment of fattening five ani- 
mals with my preserved maize, and an addition in the com- 
mencement of four kilogrammes per day of oilcake. They 
became fat with surprising rapidity. At this time seventy- 
three horned animals live only upon maize and straw on 
my farms at Burtin and Gouillon, and my stables are always 
open to visiting farmers. Maize poorly preserved is a poor 
nutriment for animals, and may even become a poison for 
them. We should not lose sight of the fact that in the condi- 
tion of the preserved fodder there are an infinite immber of 
degrees to which the nutritive value con'esponds ; the inethod 
of cutting, the chemical modifications to which it is subjected, 
cause it to vary from single to double the nutritive power. 

Says one person to me, " I can use but one-half maize in 
my rations ; otherwise my beasts would perish." Another says, 
"One-third is the maximum quantity that my beasts can 
stand in their rations." Another pretends that a quarter is 
hardly endurable. Gentlemen, only make good ensilages, and 
all will change with you, as it did with me. The ensilages of 
my first attempts were no better than yours. Little by little 
I have made them better, and therefore better supported m}' 
animals — that is the whole question. My much regretted re- 
lative, Louis Pilat, who held for many years the first rank in 
the art of fattening sheep, when pressed by me to divulge his 
secret, replied, '' My secret: I have none ; it is only a question 
of fare. Induce the animals to eat abundantly by a large 
choice, variety, and good preparation of food ; that is all there 
is to it." 



20 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

Now is maize by itself a rich food ? Evidently not. With- 
out the analyses more or less exact that have been published, 
one fact proves its lack of richness in nutritive principles, and 
that is the large quantity that animals eat in order to keep 
them in good condition. This fact I have recognized and 
published twenty times. No one would pretend that a kilo- 
gramme of maize could be made to take the place of a kilo- 
gramme of lucern, clover, or French grass (sainfoin) ; but by 
supplying in quantity what it lacks in richness, we can main- 
tain our animals by maize as well as by the richest grasses. 
The question is to compare the selling value, or rather the 
price that returns from the two kinds of fodder, and to ascer- 
tain if twice the quantity, or even thrice, does not cost less 
than the j^roducts that it replaces. To me, the affirmative is 
not in doubt. The question is simpler when we apply it to 
countries, too numerous indeed, which, like Sologne, produce 
good crops of maize, but are rebellious to the culture of rich 
fodder, lucern, sainfoin, etc. In such jolaces the cultivator lias 
no choice ; he has only to avail himself of the benefits of maize, 
and he is spared all embarrassment. One important point that 
a long practice has put for me beyond doubt is that the same 
green maize placed nourishes better, the weight being equal, 
when it is cut short than when it is fed whole, and that its 
nutritive power increases when it has been softened by lying 
several weeks in a silo, then undergoing a light commencement 
of alcoholic fermentation a few hours before being fed out. I 
estimate that with young animals acclimated, the increase of 
weight at eighty centimes per kilogramme (7 cents per lb.) will 
pay upon an average about 20 francs per thousand kilogram- 
mes of preserved maize (about $3.50 per ton). I consider this 
price as so nearly regular that I adopt it as a point of departm^e 
when I msh to reckon up my farming operations. 

Fattening by means of preserved maize, with an addition 
of calie of arachide (earth-nuts) has given me excellent results. 
I have fattened this winter eight animals from my stables 



CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 21 

which I wished to part with on account of old age, steriHty, 
deformity, under size, or mischievous disposition. Their value 
on foot before fattening was 55 centimes per kilogramme. 
They sold for 70 centimes per kilogramme ; there was an in- 
crease of weight of 447 kilogrammes, and in value 845 francs 
25 centimes. These animals consumed during their fattening, 
averaging 58 days, 2935 kilogrammes of oilcake, costing 10 
centimes per kilogramme, or a total of 203 francs 50 centimes. 
The maize therefore paid me about 45 francs per 1,000 kilo- 
grammes, which is indeed a high price, better than one could 
obtain either by milk, the increase of young animals, or other 
products of the stables. Preserved maize has also the merit 
of exciting to its highest point the appetite for oilcake, which 
is at first repugnant, especially at the commencement, if it is 
fed alone, without being mixed with maize, which has so much 
attraction for them. A third experience, viz., the nutritive value 
of maize in view of the raising of sucking calves, resulted in 
paying me 40 francs per 1,000 kilogrammes of maize. 

Numerous experiments will be necessary in order to set- 
tle these questions. I have wished simply to indicate them 
and to put them in some sort of order before recommencing 
them. The advantages that I have enumerated are not the 
only ones that belong to this culture. These plants have large 
and numerous leaves which exercise a happy influence upon 
the health of the country where they are cultivated. 

They absorb miasms which arise from the earth at the 
critical moment in certain countries where the crops of grain 
and fodder have just been removed. The maize in full vege- 
tation at that moment replaces, as an absorbent, the other vege- 
tation. Planted in gardens near habitations they play at first 
a hygienic role ; then gathered and dried, if need be near the 
hearth, and the stalks cut in pieces of eight to ten centimetres 
long, placed in a close vessel filled with warm water, they 
quickly produce an agreeable drink much appreciated by work- 
ingmen. 



22 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

IX. 
THE PEICKLY COMFREY OF THE CAUCASUS. 

Me. Cheisti has sent me from London this winter three 
hundred stalks of this plant, in which the agricultural world 
begins to take an interest. They were planted in April, in a 
field prepared to receive the maize, upon large ridges, spaced 
one metre ; the distance between each plant was also a metre 
upon the ridge. Thus each plant occupies one square metre, 
and the hectare would contain ten thousand. 

The soil is excellent. It is situated in my valley, and is 
surrounded by ditches in which I can keep water at the height 
which I judge necessary in order to insure suitable moisture. 
I have already (August, 1877) cut this forage twice, and 
probably shall cut it twice more before the end of the season. 
The yield increases at each cutting, owing to the development 
of the plants. Without being able to give yet the precise 
figures, I believe that the total yield will be in weight very 
httle less than that of maize. My plants will not attain their 
fullest development till next year, when the yield will exceed 
all the other forage crops which are cut successively. My 
animals eat it without avidity, but without repugnance. I 
will mix it with my maize at the time of ensilage, and I hope 
to obtain some good results. The comfrey seems to exceed 
the maize in nitrogenous substance, and the maize will aid 
the comfrey by its great richness in certain very useful prin- 
ciples which are much desired by animals. Maize contains 
only on an average 1.20 to 1.25 per cent, of nitrogenous mat- 
ter, while recent analyses attribute to the comfrey 2.70 per 
cent. — ^that is, more than double. These two plants, instead of 
concurring, complete each other, to the great advantage of 
agriculture. 

The comfrey, by its manner of growth and of successive 



OULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 23 

cropping, which commences with the spring and only finishes 
with the autumn, seems to me especially called for in aid of 
small farming. This will accommodate itself better than large 
farming to the frequent attentions that the comfrey requires, 
and of the time relatively considerable that this crop demands 
from day to day. 



PROCESSES BY WHICH I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ASSURING 
THE PRESERVATION OF GREEN MAIZE FOR AN INDE- 
FINITE TIME. 

The end to be attained is to prevent all kinds of fermen- 
tation before and after ensilage ; for the wa}^ to avoid bad fer- 
mentation is to not permit any. It is by not having discover- 
ed sooner this fundamental principle that so many seekers like 
myself have lost so many years in baiTen experiences. We 
wished to preserve maize by fermentation ; that is to say, we 
turned our backs on the solution of the problem. Fermenta- 
tion preserves nothing. On the contrary, it is always a }jre- 
liminary step towards a decomposition more or less putrid, 
towards a real destruction. I have had this experiences a 
thousand times : when my maize had contracted in my im])er-. 
feet silos alcoholic fermentation, I hastened to have it eaten up 
as soon as possible rather than to see it pass to acetic fermen- 
tation, and soon after to lactic or putnd fermentation. These 
experiences, so often repeated and always fruitless, had finally 
discouraged me. For a long time I had resigned myself to 
only require from my silos a temporary preservation of a few 
weeks at the most ; that is to say, the time that lapsed be- 
tween the ensilage and the appearance of putrid fei-mentation. 
I had, however, from that time, at my disposal all the elements 



24 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

of a complete success. In 1853 I had established at Burtin a 
complete factor}^ for preserving — a powerful feed-cutter from 
England, which has admirably performed for me, for more than 
twenty years ; a hydraulic power, eight-horse, to work the feed- 
cutter ; then at two steps from the feed-cutter, four silos, hol- 
lowed in the ground, plastered with Portland cement, and per- 
fectly water-tight. I cut at that time my maize in pieces of 
three to four centimetres long; I mixed a certain proportion 
of short straw (always too much), and I filled successively 
my silos by pressing down the layers of the mixture by one, 
and sometimes several persons treading upon it. After this 
pressing down with great pains, I placed on the top a layer of 
short straw about ten centimetres long, and above all a layer 
of loam, beaten with care, in order to prevent all contact be- 
tween the ensilaged maize and the air outside. During the 
following days I stopped up the fissures which appeared on 
the surface. When I proceeded, several weeks later, to open 
the silo, I found invariably a vacuum of several centimetres 
between the maize and the superincumbent clay. Notwith- 
standing the force of the compression that was produced during 
the ensilage, the maize had undergone another settling, and its 
upper part presented an alteration which would communicate 
rapidly to the lower layers. In order to avoid this result I 
had no other means than to feed it out as quickly as possible. 
Later I abandoned the clay as a covering for my silos. Imme- 
diately after having pressed in my mixture of cut maize and 
straw, I applied above all a covering of plank fitting exactly 
the opening of the silo, and descending with the maize as it 
shrunk down. This simple change produced a j)erceptible 
amendment, but it was quite insufficient still. The alteration 
was but little retarded, but I was on the right track. To-day 
I still use the same silos, and I obtain a preservation indefinite 
and complete. In what then have I modified my processes I 
Instead of cutting my maize in pieces of three or four centi- 
metres in length, I cut them one centimetre only. Instead of 



OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 25 

mixing- a quarter and sometimes a third in weight of sliort 
straw, I never exceed the proportion of one-tenth, and oftener 
I bury tiie maize without any mixture. Finally, and here is 
the principal difference : I pile on the cover of my silo when 
it is filled, four or five hundred kilogrammes of stones or blocks 
of wood per square metre of surface. By my first processes I 
obtained only a temporary and incomplete preservation ; with 
my last I obtained a preservation indefinite and absolute. 
How have these three simple modifications led to such mar- 
vellous results? To explain this will be the object of the fol- 
lowing chapters. 



XI. 

HOW THE MAIZE SHOULD BE CUT. 

Agriculture does not generally appreciate at its full value 
the advantages that can be derived from the cutting of fodder 
as affecting the nourishment of cattle. Even besides the pre- 
paration for ensilage, these advantages are considerable. The 
feed-cutter with its cutting-knives and the fluted cylinders 
which precede them, and which act in some sort as molars, 
work certainly better and more economically than the jaws of 
oui* animals, especially when it is moved by water, by steam, 
or by horse-power. (I do not speak of the arms of men, which 
have become too scarce, and therefore too dear for that ser- 
vice.) The labor of mastication is an expenditure of force 
which the animal does not perform gratuitously. I leave to 
our skillful professors of mechanics the care of determining 
scientifically the effort that animals make in grinding the dif- 
ferent food that is presented, and which proportionately 
requires an addition to its ration in order to represent that ex- 



26 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

penditure. I have seen in former times in my stables, when 
I caused my beasts to eat maize uncut, that they were fatigued 
b}^ their incessant efforts to tear to pieces the large stalks, and 
were so exhausted as to fail to profit as they have done since 
by this excellent food when presented in a form more favora- 
ble for its absorption. Imagine two men obliged to support 
themselves, one upon the wheat in grain, and the other upon 
the same quantity reduced to flour. You may be sure that 
these two men would not profit equally from their respective 
food, which, however, is chemically the same. The same 
maize produces food very different in its effect, according to 
whether it has been only cut, or cut and softened by the com- 
mencement of fermentation, or offered to the animals in whole 
stalks more or less dry. The fineness to which I cut my 
maize at the moment of ensilation is extremely important in 
view of good ])reservation. Gut in disks of only one centime- 
tre thick, the maize packs better in the silo, it occupies less 
space, and takes the form and consistency of a species of pulp, 
leaving in its mass the least possible amount of air. In pro- 
portion as the length is increased, the preservation becomes 
less perfect, and finishes by being entirely defective. Last 
year a cultivator of the valley of the Loire, took from me the 
dimensions of my elliptic silo, and reproduced it exactly on his 
own farm. He filled it in the autumn, and when he opened it 
during the winter, he took out a poorly preserved product, 
which his beasts only eat with repugnance. Grreatly disap- 
pointed, he brought to me a sample of his maize that he had 
cut in lengths of five to six centimetres, instead of one or two 
at most, as I had advised him. I recognized at once the cause 
of his failure, and asked him why, contrary to my advice, he 
had cut it so long. He replied, " I was not able to procure a 
steam engine which I expected to use, and I had to use a 
horse-power ; the work did not get along fast enough, and in 
order to hasten it, I decided to cut it in such long pieces." He 
was surprised at the excellent preservation of the maize at 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 27 

Bui'tin, and he carried home a hundred kilogrammes ; his cat- 
tle were thus enabled to appreciate the difference. I cite this 
fact because it contains a valuable lesson. 



XII. 

PROPER PROPORTION OF STRAW. 

At the beginning of my ensilages I had as principal 
resource for the sustenance of my stock a great quan- 
tity of wheat, oat, and rye straw, etc. In order to induce 
my cattle to eat it, I mixed all that I could with my maize and 
my green cut rye, but I was not slow to notice that this mixture 
kept much less time as the proportion of straw was greater. 
A fiftieth in volume, or a tenth in weight, Avas the maximum 
of what the maize could carry without being exposed to an 
early alteration ; when I increased this quantity, the time that 
it kept always diminished, and at last did not exceed forty- 
eight hours. I attribute this to the fact that the straw, being 
very dry, absorbs from the maize too much of its water. The 
moist condition of the ensilages, instead of being a cause 
of deterioration, is, on the contrary, to a certain extent, indis- 
pensable to the good preservation of the whole matter. 

Maize in its normal condition contains about eighty-five 
per cent, of water ; when the addition of dry straw has caused 
the mixture to decline to an average holding less than sev- 
enty-five per cent, the good preservation is much compro- 
mised, and quickly becomes impossible if we try to go below 
it. Besides the too great dehydratation that the presence of 
the straw may cause, it also offers another serious inconven- 
ience, especially rye straw. This straw when cut forms a 
great quantity of little tubes, the envelopes of which resist de- 
composition for a long time ; these tubes inclose an apprecia- 



28 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

ble quantity of air, which is the most dangerous enemy of 
ensilage. Oat straw, or others of softer texture, are less dan- 
gerous in this respect than rye straw. While I used at first 
the short straw from my threshing, always troublesome on ac- 
count of the amount of room that it occupies, henceforth I 
shall bury my fodder almost without any mixture. Some- 
times, however, it is well to mix short straw with maize with- 
out passing suitable limits. Such a case presented itself at 
Burtin, in the autumn of 1876. When maize has been cut be- 
fore the frost, and arrives in good condition to the cutting- 
machine and then to the silo, it does not yield its Avater easily, 
even when it is submitted to a considerable pressure. But it 
is not the same when this fodder is too old, and has been ex- 
posed to the rains and frosts at the end of autumn. 

On one occasion, in October, 1876, I found, for lack of 
sufficient silos, that it was impossible to bury all my crop of 
maize. 1 was obliged to improvise a new silo, in an old build- 
ing, in order to place the surplus, and this ensilage was not 
completed until the first days of December. 

The stalks, touched by frost, had become very soft and 
weak. The cutting was difficult, but, most unfortunate of all, 
the layer of cut maize had scarcely attained in the silo two 
metres of thickness, when, by reason of the pressure upon the 
first layer, the juice began to run out freely through the open- 
ing, and this discharge continued for several days. This was 
a serious loss, which I could have avoided by mixing some 
cut straw with the overripe maize. Except in this case, my 
maize has never lost in this way any of its water ; at the dis- 
interment the bottoms of my silos have always been found 
nearly dry, barely moist. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 29 

XIII. 

COMPRESSION OF THE SILOS. "^^ , 

/ 
It is indispensable to superimpose four or five hundred 

kilogrammes per square metre of heavy materials upon the cover- 
ing- or movable planks of the filled silos. I meet here the most 
important question — that which I have had the most trouble 
to solve, and whicli I have only really solved quite recently. 
When a silo has been filled, it does not answer only to prevent 
the external air from penetrating it; it is necessary at once to 
seek means for expelling the mass of air that it incloses be- 
tween its disks and in its cells. It is liere that tlie heavy ma- 
terials with which I load my silos become important ; it is 
necessary that the air inclosed in the silo should find between 
the joints of the covering planks an outlet ; it is necessary that 
a strong compression should compel this air to pass out quick- 
ly and to quit the place where it would cause most serious 
damage if it remained. It is necessary that this powei'ful 
compression should continue during several months, because 
the tramping of the workmen is insufficient, for the following 
reasons : At the moment when the green maize is cut, it is all 
ahve, and is so elastic that it reacts forcibly against the mo- 
mentary pressure of the feet of the workmen. It is not the 
same several days or weeks thereafter, but its elasticity dimin- 
ishes, or, in other words, its compressibility increases in con- 
siderable proportions ; it is then that the heavy superimposed 
materials follow the maize down in its softened condition, con- 
tinuing to press it in proportion as its compactness increases, 
and brings it to that state of density that is necessary in order 
to put it out of reach of all alteration. 



30 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 



XIV. 

THE PROPER HYDROMETRIC CONDITION OF MAIZE AT THE 
TIME OF ENSILAGE. 

A FAULT which I often committed at the commencement 
of my experiments, was to leave my maize upon the field in 
order that it might undergo a partial desiccation before the 
ensilage. This is to be avoided absolutely. When the water 
evaporates from the cells of the maize, it is immediately re- 
placed by air; that is to say, by the most active agent in all 
alteration. Let the maize keep all its water, if you wish to 
preserve it by ensilage. 

All the directions which I have laid down as proper for the 
ensilage of maize, apply to all other fodder without dis- 
tinction, and insure the same success. If I speak more par- 
ticularly of maize, it is because I have found in that wonder- 
ful plant all the elements of a new and boundless agricultural 
wealth, from the day when I arrived at the assurance of its in- 
definite preservation by ensilage for the nourishment of my 
cattle throughout the whole year. Before this time it had 
hardly nourished them during three months, while it was pos- 
sible to feed it to them green. 



XV. 

EFFECTS OF ENSILAGE UPON FODDER. 

My maize, my green rye, my fodder of all kinds, have 
scarcely changed color, after eight or ten months of ensilage ; 
fed exclusively to my animals, they produce exactly the same 
effects, the same a,bundance of milk and butter, the same flavor, 
and the same color to the butter. These qualities, so important to 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 31 

butter preserved through the winter by the ensilage, are in my 
eyes the true touchstone, when we seek to appreciate the re- 
spective merits of the different processes of ])reservation of fod- 
der. Let a farmer show me the butter that his ensilasre ogives him 
during the winter, and I will have no need of other means of 
investigation in order to arrive at his skill. ^' A workman is 
known by his work." 

I opened in April, 1877, my last elliptic silo, which con- 
tained nearly 100,000 kilogrammes of maize, ensilaged in Octo- 
ber, 1876, more than seven months. It disclosed a very compact 
mass of a brownish green color ; the-temperature-did not exceed 
10 degrees (Reamur) ; there was no appreciable odor; taken 
in the mouth it was really insipid, and this freedom from odor 
and taste produced at first an almost disagreeable sensation. 

I detached from the mass several hundred kilogrammes,"~| 
intended for the next feeding of my animals. It was hardly 
exposed to the air when it underwent a veritable change : the 
brownish color became sensibly green, the beginning of alco- ; 
holic fermentation took place, without exceeding the limits 
which that fermentation ought never to pass. That silo was 
not completely exhausted until the 10th of August, and the 
maize remained in good condition until the last day. My 
forty-days maize reached at that time the point where it was 
suitable to be cut for fodder ; it had attained its full height, 
and in the month of August my animals eat it green ; they 
were only ten days without maize during the year 1877. 

My silos of rye will be consumed dm-ing the winter. I do 
not need to say that green rye is much richer than maize, and 
a much smaller quantity will go as far ; the mixtui'e of these 
two kinds of fodder is an excellent diet. 

My animals, fed upon maize ensilage during the whole 
winter, scarcely drink when they are loosened in the middle 
of day to quench their thirst at the river which crosses my 
farm ; nearly all return to the stable without having approached 
it. 



32 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

Their excrements, of medium consistency, denote a very 
favorable pathological condition. We must conclude that 
maize ensilag-e in the matter of retaining water is a well bal- 
anced food, since it furnishes to animals, in most suitable pro- 
portion, food and drink. Each one of my ensilages may be 
regarded as an immense cylinder, and its covering of plank, a 
gigantic piston, whose surface exceeds fifty square metres ; the 
heavy substances which I superimpose act as a motive power, 
causing the piston to descend and compress the ensilage, 
leaving between the planks an outlet for the air, which the 
compression is intended to drive out. My large operations I 
have frequently repeated in a small way, with a glass jar 27 
centimetres in diameter and 50 centimetres in height; a wooden 
disk, surmounted with a faucet, furnished with a rubber tube, 
acts as a piston ; I load it with a certain ascertained weight in 
order to compress the matter in the jar ; a second faucet is put 
in the bottom, when the pressure commences to lower the pis- 
ton. The air in the ensilage escapes by the two faucets, and I 
easily ascertain the quantity. In the beginning the faucets 
give out pure air, the volume of which is exactly equal to that 
the mass has lost ; afterward, if the compression has been in- 
sufficient and has left a certain amount of air in the mass, it is 
no longer pure air which comes out when I open the faucets ; 
there have been some very interesting modifications produced 
in the mass, interesting to follow and well worth the study 
of the chemist. 

"But," as has been kindly said to me, " you are making sour- 
krout; that was made long before you did it." If I am making 
sour-krout, or anything resembling it, I make it without cab- 
bage and without pickle, with different kinds of fodder, and 
my sour-krout cost but J centime a kilogramme ; it is sour- 
krout for animals, who show themselves very gi-ateful for it. 
This sour-krout is a complete agricultural revolution. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 33 

XVI. 

HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 

With my new stables at Burtin finished, I shall be able 
to house one hundred horned cattle. My ensilages of 1877 
only permit me to feed seventy, but with those of 1878 I 
expect to be able to feed one hundred. I have just finished 
three united silos, which form a part of the plan of my new 
stable. 

The form of the silo exercises a great influence upon the 
results. It should avoid all angles, and should offer the least 
possible resistance to the packing down of the ensilage. The 
elliptic silo with vertical walls is the best form both for use 
and for durability. It is important to have them as large as 
possible compatible with the conditions of easy and economi- 
cal use. The preservation of the ensilage in small silos is 
always less perfect than in large ones. No matter how much 
care is used and how much weight is applied, I have always 
found the portion which is farthest from the walls to be the 
best preserved, and that close to the walls there is always 
some alteration, not serious, but which it is important to re- 
duce as much as possible. Small receptacles offer proportion- 
ally much more surface for contact. A rectangular silo, for 
example, of one metre each way, containing one cubic metre, 
presents five square metres of contact surface, while one of 
ten cubic metres, with 1,000 cubic metres of contents, presents 
only 500 square metres of contact surface, diminishing nine- 
tenths the evil indicated. But I do not advise silos of such 
dimensions as this. At the commencement of my experiments 
I recommended small silos, in order that when opened they 
might be quickly consumed before they became a prey to the 
slow combustion which the contact with the air produced, 
with as small an entrance as possible for the air, of which the 
first effect was to raise the temperature, and then produce fer- 



34 CULTURE AM) ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

mentation, first alcoholic, next acetic, and then putrid. But 
the day that I discovered the new process of a movable 
weighted covering, so that I was able to maintain in the mass 
a continuous density whereby the penetration of the air be- 
came impossible, I abandoned the small silos. Since then I 
have made them as large as possible, and they are only lim- 
ited by the economy of the different operations of ensilage. 



XVII. 
HOW TO FILL A SILO. 



It is necessary to procure, either by purchase or rental, a 
motive power and a powerful feed-cutter. Large farms are 
generally provided with these machines, but the average 
farmer will have to hire. It may be that the travelling con- 
tractors for threshing will become contractors for cutting maize 
for ensilage, with a machine that possesses sufficient weight to 
be solid, and is also portable. Filling the silo should be done 
as rapidly as possible, and the layer of maize should be kept 
level all the time. The greater the compression the better 
will be the preservation. The packing along the walls (which 
should be as smooth as possible) should be attended to care- 
fully. A woman turning continually as near as possible to 
the walls will accomplish this very well. 

When the silo is filled to the top and carefully leveled, 
spread along the surface short straw four or five centimetres 
thick, then place on top of this boards fitting close to- 
gether. These should be put across the silo in order that 
when it is being fed out they may be taken off one by one, as 
the silo is cut down vertically. Upon this flooring there should 
be piled abimdance of weight, such as stones, bricks, logs of 
wood, or old bags filled with dirt, etc. At Burtin I have aban- 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE 



35 



doned using loose earth as a means of compression, as it infil- 
trates into the ensilage, and adhering to the walls a vacuum 
forms as the maize settles away, which is destructive. 

Note. — The translator lost his first investment in ensilage by depending upon 
earth covering, which arched by freezing and left a vacuum. 




A filled Silo being emptied by vertical sliciag. 



Any ridge on the silos is objectionable, as the ensilage 
cannot be sufficiently compressed, and the diy rot soon at- 
tacks it and communicates to the material below. 

As to using salt in the silos, it is not very important, and 
I often omit it without any bad result ; but I believe the mod- 
erate use of salt is favorable to the health of animals, and I 
sometimes mix in my ensilage one kilogramme to a cubic 
metre of maize, the average weight of which, after being 
packed, is 812 kilogrammes. 

When the ensilage is fed out it should be exposed to the 
air fifteen or twenty hours, in order that the alcoholic fermen- 
tation may commence. The proper time depends upon the 
temperature, but if kept longer than this, the fermentation be- 
comes excessive and injurious. The spontaneous heat which 
is produced in the feed should never exceed 35 or 40 degrees 
(R.). Two years ago I had no silos at my farm at Gouillon, 
and I carried every other day from Burtin what was neces- 
sary. From the second day the heat exceeded these limits, 
and the alcoholic vapor abundantly emitted indicated the seri- 



36 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

ous loss that was going on. The acetic acid was not slow to 
join the party. In the north, the beet pulp that is fed in win- 
ter is nearly always quite sour ; it is to this circumstance that 
I attribute the poor quality of milk and butter obtained from 
the animals kept on this food. 



XVIII. 

THE NEW STABLES AT BURTIN, AND THEIR SILOS. 

My new stables are a square of twenty-four metres on 
each side, divided into two compartments, each of which has a 
central passage between two rows of stalls. These passages 
are connected with the silos by a small railway, which makes 
it convenient to bring the feed before each animal. The maize 
and the other ensilaged fodder is carried in willow baskets all 
of the same size, which are frequently weighed in order to keep 
account of the weight of the rations given to each lot of cattle. 
My silos are elliptic in form, with perpendicular walls as 
smooth as possible inside, five metres wide and the same 
height. Should I modify them in any way in future it will be 
only to increase the height. 

My farm at Burtin presents exceptional difficulties for 
building silos. Everywhere the water is met at one metre below 
the surface, and as I want to sink my silos nearly two metres, 
because the part below the ground preserves in summer more 
moisture than that part above the ground, I am obhged to first 
dig a ditch lower than the excavation all around it, and 
then to cement the lower part, which causes a considerable 
expense. I put concrete on the bottom, and upon this I 
build the vertical walls of the thickness of two bricks (45 
centimetres) to the top of the ground. Above the ground I 
reduce the thickness to one brick and a half (about 34 centi- 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 



37 



metres.) I coat the walls with Portland cement sufficient to 
insure their perfect impermeability. My triple silos have cost 
me 4176 francs, and their total capacity 812.45 cubic metres, 
about 5 francs 14 centimes per cubic metre. I intend next 
}'ear to raise the walls of my silos another metre, so that their 
capacity will be about a thousand cubic metres. I postpone 
till that time my decision as to a special cover for them. 




Plan of united Silos. 



Most agriculturists are more favored in the profile of their 
soil; many of them have a hillside in the neighborhood of their 
barn, in which they can open silos that will always be dry, and in 
some places can dispense with masonry by having solid rock. 
Those who wish to imitate me will have less hesitation when 
they know that Burtin is a particularly bad place for building 
silos, and that they can obtain the same results with much 
less outlay. 

In making use of such large silos as these it is necessary 
of course to have a cutting-machine with a six-horse power 
engine at least, and an elevator to raise the cut fodder over 



38 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

the walls of the silos. I estimate that with these instruments 
one silo can be filled in three days at most without difficulty. 
This rapidity is necessary in order to assure the success of 
ensilage. When the elevator and cutter are combined in the 
same machine, the process will be simplified. 

As to the average farmer, as I have already said, it will 
be better to employ the thi-eshing-machine contractors, who 
will find it to their interest to adapt themselves to this busi- 
ness also. It is above all the duty of the wealthy agriculturists 
who have entered upon the way that I have indicated, and 
from whom I receive every day so many grateful letters, 
to assist the willing farmers around them, and who have need 
of their advice. For my part, I shall hold myself in the future 
as in the past always at the disposal of farmers who think 
they need to recur to my experience. 

I engage to pay a prize of 500 francs to the first thresh- 
ing-machine contractor who will prove to me that he has en- 
silaged in this way at least 2,000,000 kilogrammes of fodder. 



XIX. 

CONCLUSIONS. 



i SAID in 1873, in one of my first pamphlets, " My pro- 
found conviction is that the culture and ensilage of maize is 
destined to cause a complete agricultural revolution ; it ought 
in ten years to double the number of animals supported on 
our soil." Was this a chimerical hope? G-od has pre- 
served me from all discouragement on this point. In the last 
four years the progress that I have made at Burtin has ex- 
ceeded all my hopes. Upon my reserve of thirty-five hec- 
tares I have kept during the winter of 1876 forty- three horned 
cattle, and I shall keep during the winter of 1877 seventy, 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 39 

with the assurance of going much beyond this at the end of 
1878. 

Here are facts more conclusive than any argument. The 
great establishment that I have finished, and shall inaugui*ate 
in October, 1877 (to which I invite all agriculturists), proves 
my firm faith in my work. I have spared no pains nor ex- 
pense to assure solidity in my buildings in dear Sologne, 
which may be considered as the cradle of this new industry, 
and they represent the point of departure of an immense agri- 
cultural progress. Perhaps I may, without too much pride, 
inscribe upon them the words of the great Latin poet, '■'■ Exegi 
monumentum^ acre perennms.'" 



EFFECTS OF FROST IN SEPTEMBER, 1877, AT BURTIN. 

I had hardly finished this little work when I was sur- 
prised, as were all my confreres, by a meteorological circum- 
stance that was exceedingly injurious. A heavy frost in the 
nights of the 22d and 23d of September and following, stop})ed 
short the vegetation of my maize, which at the bottom of ray 
valley had the appearance of having been burned down to the 
roots. My maize on higher ground sufi'ered less, but the 
growth is also stopped, and the crop will be much smaller. 
When such a misfortune occurs, the most effective way to 
lessen it is to cut the maize and proceed with the ensilage im- 
mediately. Thanks to the prompt measures taken, the frost 
caused me little other damage than a diminution of the 
crop, according as it had more or less attained its full devel- 
opment. The maximum height of my stalks was 4.72 metres, 
and from that down to 3 metres. 



40 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

HISTORY OF M. GOFFAET'S INVENTION. 

From his Speech at Blois, May 8, 1875. 

In 1850 I made some experiments in the ensilage of 
wheat at Versailles, since which time the preservation of fod- 
der has become my favorite occupation. In 1852 I construct- 
ed four underground silos, with masonry, and cemented, each 
having a capacity of two cubic metres ; these silos I have 
filled and emptied several thousand times. Maize, Jerusalem 
artichokes, beets, sorgho, turnips, potatoes, straw, I have ex- 
perimented upon with more or less success. Straw, in the 
scarcity of fodder, has several times saved my stables. Some 
years ago I had in the autumn more than 80 horned cattle, 
and my hay crop would not have permitted me to support 10. 
One should be an agricultm'ist of Sologne to know what such a 
trouble means. In rich countries when the hay crop fails, it 
means that instead of harvesting 5,000 or 6,000 kilogrammes to 
the hectare, there are only 3,000 or 4,000, but in Sologne it 
means that there is no crop at all. In such difficulties the en- 
terprising cultivator must use more intelligence and more in- 
dustry. " What the man is worth, that the land is worth," is 
an old proverb, but I will improve upon it by saying, the man 
should be worth more, as the land is worth less. 

I got throu.gh safely that year by having 60,000 bundles 
of wheat, rye, and oat straw. I cut them up, and with 35 
kilogrammes of rye flour, which I fermented each day in large 
tubs, and in which I soaked the straw, I obtained food that 
was softened by fermentation, which my cattle ate freely and 
digested easily. Thus I reached the following spring without 
being obliged to sell my cattle at a low price. I must ac- 
knowledge that at the end of winter my beasts were in a sorry 
condition, but the first grass quickly restored them, and I was 
not compelled to replace them at a high price in the spring ; 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 41 

and now, the two years of scarcity which my fellow-agricultu- 
rists have passed through have been for me — owing to my 
silos — years of unprecedented plenty. What I have done can 
be done by thousands of others, and my earnest desire, my sole 
ambition, is to enable them to imitate me as soon as possible. 
Until 1872 I only expected from my limited ensilages the 
means of prolonging for three weeks, or at most a month, the 
use of maize, so desirable a food for my cattle. To that end 
I made many experiments. I have mixed my cut maize with 
various proportions of straw, in order to find which would give 
the best result. I have made silos without cover, burying the 
ensilage under bundles of straw, then with earth (never sand). 
I have filled my four silos with every possible mixture, which 
would sooner have put me upon the road to a positive success 
if I had not been too easily alarmed by slight alterations on 
the surface, and which I caused to extend all through by too 
frequent examinations. 

In 1873 I had a real success, due mainly to accident ; and 
it is to be recognized that chance nearly always plays an im- 
portant part in the happiest discoveries. 

Until this time I had hardly believed that the preservation 
of green maize for a long time was possible, and I had very 
little confidence. I hesitated a while, and should have proba- 
bly hesitated a good while longer if I had not been in a measure 
compelled to do something. The year 1873 had been excep- 
tionally favorable for the culture of maize. At Burtin the crop 
was enormous. After having fed my cattle abundantly until 
October, besides having all that they could eat while green till 
December, I found that I had more than 170,000 kilogrammes 
that would be lost if I could not keep it at least till the follow- 
ing March. I went resolutely to work, and I have described 
elsewhere the means that I used and the result that I obtained. 
The difficulties were greater than one would believe, on account 
of the lack of faith of my employees. One day I had to leave 
my workmen for a while, but my return was sooner than they 



42 CULTURE AITD ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

expected. The work had ceased, of course. They were talk- 
ing together, and I overheard my foreman say to the workmen, 
'' This work that we are doing is all foolishness ; M. Goffart had 
better throw his maize into the dung-heap at once, because that 
is where it will go to at last. " I said nothing, but redoubled 
my watchfulness, knowing how little zeal I could expect from 
people so convinced of the uselessness of their labor. 

A silo built upon the ground gives the best result dm^ing 
the cold season from December to March, but as the tempera- 
ture rises fermentation develops rapidly. The underground 
silo with masonry walls is better ; the temperature does not rise 
even in April, and at Bm-tin at this time (May 8) it is nearly in 
the same condition as at the time of ensilage, seven months ago. 
I would advise that the silo be sunk two metres in the ground, 
with masonry walls, and raised two meters above the ground 
Duiing the cold weather I would feed out the ensilage in the 
up2)er half, and reserve for the warmer months the lower half 

The experiment of an underground silo, but Avithout facing 
the walls with masonry, has also given a favorable result, in the 
sense that the loss has only been one per cent of the whole, but 
such a silo soon falls down when it is empty, and consequently 
is much inferior to the former. There is another method, the 
simplicity of which is a dangerous temptation to the inexperi- 
enced. That is to pile the cut maize upon the soil, and to cover 
it with a layer of earth. I can assert that such a silo has never 
given good results. The packing down, which is essential to 
good preservation, cannot be applied to such a silo. Those who 
recommend this method of ensilage manifest a culpable igno- 
rance, and cause great loss to those who follow their advice. 
When one loses half his capital in an operation, he is not suc- 
cessful; he makes a disastrous speculation. I proscribe this 
method in the most positive manner. 

I once buried, for experiment, a thousand kilogrammes of 
corn-stalks, uncut, under a stack of straw, forming a layer 25 
centimeti-es thick. In eight days it went to the dung-heap. 



CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 43 

The cost of gathering and ensilaging 226,000 kilogram- 
mes of maize has been as follows : 

Francs. 
57 days of men, at 2 francs 114.00 

9 days of women, at 1 franc 10 centimes 9.90 

5 days of 2 drivers and 4 horses, at IG francs 80.00 

5 days of engine, from contractor, at 10 francs 50.00 

Old wood for engine, 3 francs per day 15.00 

Total 268.90 

Making cost of 1 franc 18 centimes per 1,000 kilogrammes 
(about 20 cents per gross ton). About 40 per cent of this ex- 
pense was for the cutting and putting in the silos. 

We should not lose sight of the fact that the crushing of the 
food saved to the cattle by the cutting is in itself an important 
saving of food. 

It is above all important to avoid all kinds of fermenta- 
tion during and after ensilage. Fermentation can be pro- 
duced whenever desired, and a few hours suffice to give all 
its useful effects. Take each evening from your silo the maize 
requu'ed for the next day's feeding, and 15 or 16 hours after, 
however cold and free from fermentation when taken out, it 
will be quite warm, and in full fermentation, and the animals 
will eat it greedily. Eight hours later it will have passed the 
proper limits, and it will rapidly spoil. 

This first fermentation increases the facility of digestion, 
and therefore the nutritive or assimilative poAver of the food. 
For instance, when cattle live on fresh maize in the summer, 
they eat large quantities, and are always big-bellied, which 
shows that they are obliged to supply what is lacking in 
quality by an excessive consumption ; but when they live on 
ensilaged maize which has fermented, their bellies are smaller, 
they eat less, and their whole condition is more satisfactory. 
To study all things, to try all things, to be always willing to 
change the system when one finds himself in the wi'ong — 



44 CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

such is the duty of the agriculturist, whose lot perhaps is too 
much envied. 

For my part, I have had in my agricultural career some 
hard experiences. 

In January, 1871, when I returned to Burtin, after having 
taken part in the defence of Paris, I found my stables entirely 
empty; the typhus had carried off in a few days 63 horned 
animals out of 64. By successive increase with Norman bulls, 
which I had changed every two years, I had created for my- 
self a new and very fine race, and my stables were justly re- 
nowned in Sologne. In ten days I had lost the fruit of twen- 
ty years' labor. The blow was severe, but I hardly felt it. 
What was the loss of a few thousand francs compared with the 
great national grief which was causing all our hearts to bleed? 
I began again my work mth courage. I bought young ani- 
mals to replenish my stables, which continually improve, but 
I am aware that time will fail me to replace what I have lost. 
Let us strive com-ageously. Perhaps the most obscure of the 
pioneers of agriculture brings you to-day an effective means 
with which you can charm away the dearth of fodder, which is 
one of the greatest plagues of agricultural industry. 

Do not deny to this poor but interesting Sologne the 
honor of having been the cradle of a system of ensilage that is 
effectively preservative, and of having given an example that 
the richest countries will not be slow to imitate. This is my 
earnest prayer and brightest hope. 



CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 45 



APPENDIX. 



I. 

EEPORT TO THE CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 
FRANCE BY A COMMITTEE OF THE SECTIONS ON LIVE 
STOCK, PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND HIGH CULTIVATION, 
UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE ENSILAGE OF GREEN 
CUT CORN FODDER.— SEANCE APRIL 7, 1875. 

YouK committee considered that the question of the pres- 
ervation of a fodder so productive and so desirable as maize 
deserved to be studied, and if the results should be found as 
satisfactory as M. Goffart has announced, it should be brought 
to the attention of the agricultm^al public ; therefore, I have 
been directed to present to you our report upon this important 
subject. 

All methods of preservation of food interest deeply the 
farming community which produces it, and the whole nation 
that consumes it. It tends to reduce losses by deterioration 
and by waste; it mitigates the deplorable alternations of 
low prices for crops, which ruin the agriculturists, and of 
high prices, which weaken every portion of the commonwealth. 
Finally, it insm'es regular food to animals and men, which in- 
creases the energy and adds to the productive power of the 
nation. The preservation of maize in a green state lends a 
special interest to the value of that fodder for milch cows, be- 
cause the crop is so variable^ according to the season, and the 
time for consuming it in the autumn is so short if not pre- 
served. When the heat and moisture of the season favor the 
vegetation, it produces such large crops that it cannot be con- 



46 OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

sumed before the frost destroys it, while the dried leaves and 
stalks are of very little value. Many agriculturists who 
have introduced this excellent fodder in their business have 
tried various ways of preserving for the winter what could not 
be consumed in the autumn, with results more or less satisfac- 
tory, but oftener the latter. There have been many prece- 
dents of a nature to justify these efforts. The preservation of 
grape leaves green near Lyons for the food of cattle and goats 
has made a high reputation for the cheese called Mont Dore 
from time immemorial. Apple pomace has been preserved in 
silos with good results. In various parts of Germany the 
preservation of vegetables of all sorts— tui'nips, cabbages, and 
different kinds of leaves seasoned with celery for feeding 
cows — runs back as far in the night of time as that of sour cab- 
bage (sauer-kraut) for the food of men. In the north of 
France, several lai'ge agriculturists have preserved for twen- 
ty years in silos the leaves of beets, also the beets cut across, 
which have kept better than the whole beets in cellars. The 
pulp of beets, from distilleries or sugar factories, also makes 
excellent fodder when kept in silos. The world is so old, ne- 
cessity has so long compelled the efforts of human beings, that 
we may find precedents in every line of improvement. But 
all experienced men who know the great difference that sepa- 
rates a happy suggestion, or even a successful attempt, from a 
practice well enough confiiTQed to become the base of a reg- 
ular business, will admit that these precedents do not destroy 
the merit of any man who, like Monsieur A. Groffart, has ac- 
complished a continued success. If the cultivation of maize 
and the method of ensilage have given the results that he 
clauns, and the samples submitted indicates, he merits our 
eulogies. 

M. Groffart states that he conunenced to experiment with 
maize and ensilage in 1852, and what we have seen at Burtin 
proves that his experiments have led him to a practical success. 
We have been very favorably impressed by the silos that were 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 47 

located in the old distillery which had been used for the daily 
feeding- of the cows. These silos were made by lateral walls 
of two and a half metres in height, without any excavation, 
and the maize piled upon the ground as high as the floor abo\'e 
permitted. M. Groffart had thought best to cut the maize fine 
before ensilaging it, for the following reasons : First, a more 
uniform mixture of short straw with leaves and stalks ; second, 
a division of the stalks in short pieces makes them more easy 
for the animals' to masticate, and with less waste ; third, a 
packing down more regalar and more effective in the mass. 

Note. — The further description of the process of ensilage is omitted, as the pre- 
ceding directions are the result of later experience, by which the author learned to 
avoid all fermentation. 

The fodder has an alcoholic odor, quite marked and 
slightly acid. It is eaten with avidity by the cows, and con- 
stitutes their sole food since the commencement of winter. 
We were struck by the healthy appearance of the 28 or 30 
cows — their eyes were bright, the skin soft, and they were 
in good condition. But the point that above all attracted our 
attention was the sucking calves, which are the most delicate, 
and are always the first to suffer from any deficient or bad 
food given to their mothers. We did not see a single one 
that had hair in bad condition, or that was scouring. The 
fodder that produced this excellent result contained neither 
salt nor oilcake, and one would naturally inquire if it would 
be sufficient in all cases. It is probable that for very good 
milkers, where the quantity per day is 25 to 30 litres, it 
would be necessary to add some meal or oilcake to the ra- 
tion of maize which we saw distributed, and which weighed 
28 kilogrammes per day; but for the cows in the stable of M. 
Goffart, weighing alive 400 to 500 kilogrammes, this ration 
seemed to be sufficient for them and their calves. In order to 
show the importance of the preservation of maize, I will give 
only one figure, which is, that a crop of 120,000 kilogrammes 
per hectare corresponds to about one-fifth its weight of dry 



48 CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

substance per hectare — a magnificent result, superior by far to 
that which can be obtained even with beets raised for food ot 
cattle in the lands similar to those of the domain of Burtin. 
The stock produces a great mass of manure. These facts 
have had a very happy influence upon the business at 
Burtin, and which perhaps will serve as an example to a 
country which, notwithstanding the immense amelioration 
which it has derived from railroads, by bringing to it marl 
and phosphate fertilizers, has need to pass beyond the uncer- 
tainty in which it has for a long time languished. We have 
not thought best to enter into a discussion as to net profits, 
always quite delicate, because the price varies so much, ac- 
cording to the commercial circumstances of the locality, and 
the local management of each business. It is evident that a 
cultivation of maize which produces 60,000 to 100,000 kilo- 
grammes of stalks per hectare, which must be carried to the 
machine, cut, carried, and packed into silos, and afterward 
taken out, involves a considerable expense. But it is evident 
also that a plant which produces such quantities of excellent 
fodder is the base of a profitable cultivation. It is not less 
evident that, if the business is laid out in a judicious manner, 
so as to avoid all unnecessary manoeuvres and portage, as is 
observed by factories, the cost can be reduced to an almost 
incredibly small figure. 

It is not well to advise farmers, whose means are often 
already insufficient, to invest an important part of their capital 
in constructions ; but we should call their attention to the 
consequences of the continual elevation of the price of hand 
labor, and the scarcity and increasing worthlessness of farm 
hands. We cannot operate to-day as we formerly did, be- 
cause the successive operations of opening and covering the 
silos in a distant field, the time lost in going and coming 
without overseeing, and the force wasted in transportation in 
bad weather, have become too costly. We see no reason why 
a silo under shelter may not be constructed with such economy 



CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 49 

that the ensilage of 1,000 kilogrammes of fodder may net as 
low a cost as in silos made in the ground. 

We hope also to report soon to the Society some figm:es 
which concern another sort of granary, and which prove that 
1,000 kilogrammes of oats ma}^ be kept in chests of iron, which 
protect it from all risks at less cost than in the usual grain bin. 

Finally, our conclusion can only be very favorable to the 
efforts of M. Groifart. We find that he has made a remarkable 
success, in having created a business based upon the cultiva- 
tion and preservation in silos of maize fodder. He has creat- 
ed in the midst of poor Sologne a type of agriculture which 
should be cited as an example, even to those parts of the 
country that are better conditioned. He merits, therefore, the 
thanks and congratulations of the Central Agricultural Society 
of France. 

These resolutions were put to vote, and unanimously 
carried. 

Note. — One of the expenses incident to this culture in France does not apply to 
the United States, viz., the purchase of seed-corn, which there must be imported, as 
in the South of France, where the grain matures, there is no more produced than is 
needed for local consumption. 



II. 

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL DE L' AGRICULTURE, 
OCTOBER 23, 1875. 

As we had announced, we visited, Oct. 18, the farm Bur- 
tin of M. Goffart, to assist at the ensilage of maize. We met 
there the G-eneral Inspectors of Agricultm-e, the Vice-Presi- 
dent of the Agi'icultural Commission of Blois, the Director of 
the Agricultural Colony of St. Maurice, the Baron of Coriolis, 
several members of the Greneral Council, several engineers of 
arts and manufactures, and othor noricnlturists. We watched 



50 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE 

the operation for half a day, and we are able to render an ac- 
coimt of the work. A steam-engine, heated with wood, ran a 
feed-cutter, near to which a cart brought the maize as it was 
cut in the field. 

Two workmen fed the maize to the machine, which cut it 
one centimetre in length. One shovelled cut straw upon the cut 
maize in the proportion of about one-sixth in volume. Two 
men shovelled the mixture into the silo, Avhero two more spread 
and packed it. Including the fireman and teamster, nine men 
were emploA'ed in the cutting. Besides these, two other teams 
were employed in bringing from the field, where four women 
and two men were cutting and loading. Thus seventeen per- 
sons were employed at the work, and about 5,000 kilogrammes 
were ensilaged per horn*. We brought away for analysis some 
samples of maize cut before us, and also some that we cut in 
the field. From the weights and measures that we have taken, 
M. Groffart, who has made four hectares of maize, Dent de 
Cheval, will harvest at least 100,000 kilogranmies per hectare. 
On one field that we visited the product will be 15 kilogrammes 
per square metre. In thirteen stalks that we measured, weigh- 
ing 162 kilogrammes, the average length was 3.07 metres. 

We shall return to this subject when we shall have ana- 
lyzed the maize, and afterward when we have returned to Bur- 
tin, in order to take some of the maize from the silo that we 
saw filled. 



III. 

EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL DE L' AGRICULTURE OF 

MAY 27, 1876. 

We have been invited, May 16, to visit and state the con- 
dition of preservation of maize, cut green, of which we saw 
the ensilage in October last, in company with many prominent 
agriculturists. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 51 

With such men the discussions could not fail to possess a 
lively interest, and we will return to them. At present we 
only wish to state three things. 

First — The perfect preservation of the maize cut green, 
after seven months of ensilage, Avithout any elevation of tem- 
perature, without fermentation of any kind, the rapidity with 
which it takes, upon exposure, the alcoholic odor, the avidity 
with which the bovine beasts proceed to eat it, even when it is 
offered to them by the side of new-mown grass. 

Second. — Putting in silos 2,000 kilogrammes of rye, cut 
gi'een, and cut in machine. 

Third. — The excellent condition of the animals which had 
been exclusively fed on the ensilaged maize. 

We congratulate M. Groffart upon the remarkable results 
that he has obtained. 



IV. 

THE ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF MAIZE CUT IN 
GREEN STATE. 

From a letter to M. A. Goffart, from J. A. Ban-al, Perpetual 
Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society of France, editor 
of Journal de P Agriculture : 

You do not seek to produce a fermentation in the cut fod- 
der. You propose to maintain all its parts in a condition 
as near as possible like that of the plant at the moment that 
it is cut. I have undertaken the solution of a question of 
vegetable physiology which presents a scientific interest, and 
also a practical interest of the first order. 

It is important to ascertain what is the distribution of min- 
eral and organic matter in the difi'erent parts of the stalk of 
maize. When it is cut for the silo it l^ecomes a mixture of all 



52 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

parts of the plant in sucli a manner as to give to the stock 
those that are richest in nourishment as well as those that are 
poorest. This is one of the advantages of the method which 
you have used so many years. If you give the corn plant to 
the stock in the natural state, they will eat first the tender 
parts, and will leave the hard parts, which offer the most resist- 
ance to the teeth and which have the least flavor. 

I have taken thhi;een stalks of maize, weighing altogether 
IG.""^ kilogrammes, and have cut them up into six lots, as fol- 
lows : Each of these lots has been desiccated at 100 degrees (K). 
The stalks were cut into three parts. The length of each por- 
tion was, Upper part, 0.65 m. ; middle part, 0.88m. ; lower 
part, 0.80m. ; the average total length of each stalk, without 
tassels, being 2.33m. 

Weight in green Weight after de- Water, or Loss, 
state. siccation. per cent. 

Grammes. Grammes. 

Leaves 4.805 L315 72.63 

Tassel 102 .047 56.07 

Ear, with stem 3.026 .752 75.14 

Upper part of stalk 1.270 .125 90.15 

3Iiddle part of stalk 2.446 .341 80.06 

Lower part of stalk 5.146 .661 87.15 

The thirteen stalks 16.795 3.241 80.76 

Thus, the water was quite unequally distributed in the 
stalk. They were more watery at the upper part, but the 
flowering portion was much less ; the grain was still milky. 
The relations between the different parts of the plant are 
found to be as follows : 

Normal state. Dry state. 

Leaves 29.20) 40.57) 

Tassel 66 [> 47.87 1.42 [> 65.19 

Ear, with stem 18.01 ) 23.20 ) 

Upper part stalk 7.56 ) 3.85 ) 

Middle part stalk 14.86^ 52.13 10.52^ 34.81 

Lower part stalk 30.01) 20.44) 

100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 53 

This shows that the stalks, when fresh, surpass in weight 
the remainder of the organs of the plant. They contain, how- 
ever, a less proportion of dry matter, and less than the leaves, 
which have in the fresh state a much less weight. I have 
analyzed separately each of the six lots, and I have obtained 
the following composition in organic substance and ashes, or 
mineral substance : 





Leaves. 


Tassel. 


Ears. 


Upper. 


— stalk — 
Middle. 


Lower. 


Entire 
riaut. 


Organic substance. 


89.01 


94.80 


98.30 


95.43 


97.31 


98.26 


94.26 


Ashes or mineral 
















siibstance 


10.99 


5.20 


1.70 


4.57 


2.69 


1.74 


.■3.74 



100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 

Thus it is seen that the mineral substance is accumulated 
in the leaves and upper part of stalk. 

Here are the exact proportions of the mineral substance 
in the different organs of maize : 



Middle part of stalk 4.87 

Lower part of stalk 0.29 



Leaves 77.70 

Tassel 1.22 

Ear and stem 6.79 

Upper part of stalk 3.13 100.00 

Thus, more than 77 per cent of mineral substance is ac- 
cumulated in the leaves, more than 14 per cent in the stalk, 
and only about 6 per cent in the ear. 

We will now ascertain the composition of the different 
parts of the plant, as appears when desiccated : 



Leaves. 


Tassels. 


Ears. 


Upper. 


—stalk.— 
Middle. 


Lower. 


Eatire 
Plant. 


6.28 


6.27 


11.09 


4.34 


3.86 


3.37 


0.47 



Nitrogenous substances. 

Fatty matter soluble in 

ether 1.30 1.90 2.50 1.00 .40 .30 1.28 

Saccharine matter solu- 
ble in alcohol 6.50 4.70 

Starch 64.33 25.23 

Cellulose 10.60 56.70 

Mineral substance 10.99 5.20 



8.30 


17.50 


20.60 


21.00 


11.77 


73.51 


39.49 


38.65 


35.79 


56.35 


2.90 


33.10 


33.80 


38.00 


18.37 


1.70 


4.57 


2.69 


1.74 


5.74 



Total 100.00 iOO.OO 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 

Nitrogenous (per cent). 1.004 1.004 1.775 .694 .617 .540 1.033 



54 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

The ear is found, as we would expect, much richer in 
nitrogenous substance than the other parts of the plant. The 
nutritive power, as it is agreed to define it, by the relation of 
azotic substance to the sum of the fatty matter, sugar, and 
starch, is quite inferior in the stalks to that of the other organs, 
as the following table shows : 

Taking the ear as unity, 
the proportionate nutritive power Nutritive value of 
is as follows: whole plant. 

Leaves .66 2.54 

Tassel 1.49 .09 

Ears 1.00 2.57 

Upper part stalk .57 17 

Middle part stalk 49 .41 

Lower part stalk .45 69 

6.47 

The stalk, however, shows that it is very rich, and, above 
all, the leaves, which therefore should be taken care of for 
the cattle. The fatty matter is concentrated in the leaves and 
in the ear; the saccharine matter in the leaves and stalk, and 
mostly in the lower part of the stalk. 

The following table indicates the concentration of saccha- 
rine matter in the leaves and stalk : 



Each part contriluites The different parts to whole. 

Leaves 2.64 22.36 

Tassel 07 59 

Ears 1.93 16.41 

Upper part stalk .67 5.69 

Middle part stalk 2.17 18.45 

Lower part stalk. 4.29 36.50 



U.77 100.00 



Cellulose substance is, as we would expect, in large pro- 
portion in the stalk, and mostly toward the lower part of it. 
It is principally in the leaves and ear, with stem, that the 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 



55 



starch and tlie other principles which are neither cellulose 
nor nitrogenous nor mineral, are found. 



CENTESIMAL COMPOSITION OF THE ASHES OF EACH PAET OF THE 
PLANT, AND DISTEIBUTION OF THE SAME. 



Phosplioric' Acid 

Sulphuric Acid 

Chlorine 

Potash 

Soda 

Lime 

Magnesia 

Iron 

Silex - 

Carbonic Acid and Waste 



Entire 
Plant. 



7.17 

3.81 
1.35 
4.41 
8.20 

12.96 
6.60 
0.51 

54.75 
0.18 



100.00 



Leaves. 



3.97 
3.21 
1.04 
L23 
6.78 

13.78 
5.64 
0.46 

63.76 
0.13 



Tassels. Ears. 



10.011 

6.13 

2.73 

7.88 

10.37 

11.87 

15.03 

0.11 

35.83 

0.03 



33.50 
3.58 
3.52 

27.11 

21.36 
3.46 
7.04 

trace. 
0.34 
0.09 



Upper 
Part 

Stalk. 



9.07 

5.61 

2.15 

14.61 

12.57 

10.29 

10.52 

2.08 

29.83 

3.27 



100.00 lOO.OOjlOO.OOj 100.00 



Middle. 



14.02 
8.65 

trace. 
2.41 
8.39 

14.31 
8.73 
0.63 

41.37 
1.49 



Lower. 



7.17 
3.81 

1.35 
4.41 
8.26 

12.96 
6.60 
0.51 

54.75 
0.18 



100.00 100.00 



The above table shows that the ears are the richest in 
phosphoric acid and potash. These also contain the largest 
percentage of soda, the least of lime and silex. As to the 
distribution of each mineral element in the different parts of 
the plant, it is necessary, in order to study it thoroughly, to 
enter into a more detailed and separate examination. Plios- 
phoric acid or phosphorus plays an important part in agricul- 
ture, not because it is more indispensable to vegetation than 
several other elements, but because natm*e has not distributed 
it with so much profusion in all lands or in the atmosphere as 
certain other elements that on that account are considered sec- 
ondary. Indeed, there is not any one element in vegetation 
of any greater importance than another, and if any person 
judges otherwise it is because he places himself at the point of 
view of an agriculturist who, having need to produce certain 
crops of a special kind, needs to accumulate such elements as 
enter specially into their organization. Therefore, in order to 
obtain abundant food, in order to produce with rapidity do- 
mestic animals, whose organs require much phosphorus, it is 



50 (JULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

necessary to seek methods for increasing the supply of phos- 
phates, more or less assimilable, that the plants may find in 
the bed where their roots develop. To indicate the sources of 
the supply, whether in the residuum of factories or of the 
household, or in the numerous repositories, has been one of the 
greatest services rendered in modern times to agriculture by 
chemistry and geology. But there our knowledge ends. We 
are entirely ignorant as to how the phosphorus distributes itself 
in the vegetable, by what processes it penetrates and circu- 
lates, and accumulates in certain organs, or exactly what these 
organs are. 

As to the relative distribution of these elements, the fol- 
lowing tables show, as far as concerns maize fodder intended 
for green preservation by ensilage : 

PHOSPHORIC AGED. 

Amount In each part. Proportion in different parts. 

Leaves, Grrammes, 0.177 42.96 

Tassel '' 0.007 1.70 

Ears " 0.132 32.04 

Upper part stalk " 0,020 485 

Middle part stalk " 0.026 631 

Lower part stalk " 0.050 12.14 



Whole plant, dry " 0.412 100.00 

SULPHUEIC ACID. 

The role of sulphur in vegetation is nearly unknown. All 
that we know is that it is absolutely necessary. It is generally 
found in less proportion than phosphorus ; in maize as 88 to 
180. 

Quantity in eacli part. Proportion iu different parts. 

Leaves Grammes, 0.144 65.75 

Tassel 1 " 0.005 2.28 

Ears " 0.014 6.39 

Upper part stalk " 0.009 4.11 

Middle part stalk " 0.016 7.30 

Lower part stalk « 0.031 14.17 



Whole plant, dry « 0.219 100.00 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 57 



CHLORINE. 

By the conclusive experiments of Prince de Salon-Horst- 
raar, we know that chlorine is indispensable to the regular 
operations of the different phases of vegetation, but the most 
complete obscurity rests upon its real action. 

Quantity in eacli pari . Proportion in different parts. 

Leaves Grammes, 0.047 60.26 

Tassel '' 0.002 2.56 

Ears " 0.014 17.95 

Upper part stalk ", 0.009 11.54 

Middle '• " ' 0.006 7.69 

Lower " " traces traces 



Whole plant dry " 0.078 100.00 

POTASH. 

Berthier's saying, "No plant without potash," has become 
a maxim. 

Quantity in each part. Proportion in different parts. 

Leaves Grammes, 0.055 21.94 

Tassel " 0.006 2.27 

Ears " 0.107 42.29 

Upper part stalk " 0.036 14.23 

Middle " " 0.041 16.20 

Lower " " 0.008 3.17 



Whole plant dry « 0.253 100.00 

SODA IN MAIZE. 

In the whole plant dry, 0.475 grammes, of which two- 
thirds is accumulated in the leaves, and one-sixth in the ears. 

LIME IN MAIZE. 

Lime has been considered necessary to plant growth fi'om 
a very ancient period. More than four-fifths are found in the 
leaves, only two per cent in the ear, and the quantity in- 
creases in descending the stalk. 



58 CULTUEP: and ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 



MAGNESIA IN MAIZE. 

The role of magnesia in vegetation has been but little 
studied. There is no doubt, however, after experiments made 
in Grermany, that its presence is indispensable to plants. Two- 
thirds of it is found in the leaves, and the remainder equally 
divided in the other five parts of the plant. 

lEON IN MAIZE. 

Iron is evidently of great importance to the life of ani- 
mals who are nourished by vegetation ; as with sulphur, chlo- 
rine, soda, lime, and magnesia, the greatest accumulation is in 
the leaves. But it is a noticeable fact that it is absent from 
the ear, which would seem to explain the opinion of physicians 
as to the insufficiency of corn-meal for exclusive human food. 
As to maize liarvested green in order to be fed to cattle after 
ensilage, the lack of it in the ear is equalized by its presence 
in the other parts of the plant. 

SILICA. 

It is probable that all silica enters the organs of vegeta- 
tion in the soluble state. The quantity found is very con- 
siderable. 

Quantity in each part. Proportion in different parts. 

Leaves Grammes, 2.843 90.45 

Tassel ' '' 0.026 0.82 

Ears '' 0.001 0.03 

Upper part stalk " 0.042 133 

Middle " " 0.084 2.67 

Lower " " 0.147 4.70 



Whole plant dry " 3.143 100.00 

Thus the stalk contains only about one-tenth part of the 
amount contained in the leaves, which contain 90 per cent of 
the whole plant. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 59 



y. 

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE AGRICULURAL CLUB 
OF EOMORANTIN, Oct. 12, 1876. 

By M. Rousseau. 

The discovery of the phosphates was a happy event for 
Sologne, but that depends upon our taking for an objective 
point the production of grass. Their misuse without this rem- 
edy would lead us quickly to sterility. It is necessary for us 
to produce from grass fodder for stall feeding. The two years 
of tenible di^ought that we have just passed through demon- 
strates this necessity. Until the present time oui* resources in 
fodder were limited to our natural meadows, clover, and ray- 
grass. Our natural meadows, where we cannot uTigate them, 
yield very feebly, and the grasses that they produce possess a 
very moderate nutritive quality. The clover, puss-grass and 
ray-grass leave us very often in embarrassment Om* soil is 
light, retains but scantily the moistm-e that is necessary for the 
abundant production of fodder ; we have seen this sad experi- 
ence this year, for in all the farms that we have visited, the 
gi'eatest production that we found was only thirty to thirty- 
five wagon loads. These results are afflicting, and would 
retard indefinitely any progress in agriculture, if some sup- 
plementary resoui'ces were not just now offered to us. A dis- 
tinguished agricultm'ist of Sologne has brought to us a com- 
plement to our needs. 

Since M. Goffart has demonstrated by works and experi- 
ments for more than ten years that maize fodder, easily cul- 
tivated, gives in our lands an abundant crop, which, in his 
case, has exceeded 120,000 kilogrammes to the hectare, we 
can truly say that our country is safe from the scarcity of 
fodder. Since he has shown by repeated successful efforts 
that this mass of vegetation was not only a resoiu'ce for the 



60 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

summer and autumn, but by ensilage it can be made almost 
an inexhaustible provision for the winter, we can say that the 
agriculture of Sologne has found its proper direction. The 
beet, which does not do well with us, is the wealth of the de- 
partments of the north. It permits them to support and to fatten 
a great number of animals, and thereby to produce a great 
amount of fertilizers by which to maintain and to increase the ' 
fertility of their soil. Since the beet fails us, we will have the 
maize ; and if we give it abundant manure, and that which it 
prefers above all, superphosphates, if we are wise enough to 
make use of the process that has been shown us (ensilage), we 
will see a second agricultural movement which will have a 
wider scope, without the same danger, as the discovery of the 
phosphates. 



VI. 

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT TO THE CENTRAL AGRICUL- 
TURAL COMMITTEE OF SOLOGNE, Oct. 31, 1875. 

By M. Julien, President or the Club of Romorantin. 

Gentlemen : The question of maize fodder, and above all 
of its preservation by the means of ensilage, has made too 
much noise in the agricultural world to permit this club to re- 
main a stranger to it. You have learned of the profit that the 
country might draw from this innovation, and it will not be 
one of your least titles to the public gratitude to possess 
among you the pioneers who have aided to find the methods 
for bringing into practical use an idea that is destined to work 
a revolution in the agriculture of central France. One of the 
greatest difficulties that is presented to the enterprising agri- 
culturist in a coiintry analogous to ours is the uncertainty of 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. CI 

the crop of fodder. Our irregular climate, passing from great 
humidity to extreme dryness, puts his enterprise always in 
peril. He can never count upon the resources which he has 
prepared so long in advance. To-day, however, thanks to the 
introduction of maize fodder in our variety of crops, tlie live 
stock will find a provision as sure for the winter as for the 
summer. Maize is for our central departments what the beet 
is for the countries with rich soil, and like that precious sugar 
bearer, it places at our service an immense supply of pulp. 
[The description of the processes and of the silos is omitted, 
as the improvements made by M. Groffart, in 1876-7, an- 
tiquates it.] 

The maize may be ensilaged without cutting it, but it is 
necessary to use more precaution to obtain a proper compres- 
sion ; there may remain some air inclosed, which necessarily 
causes some of it to be more or less injured. It is better to 
cut it before ensilage, which also dispenses with doing it after- 
ward. It is not necessary to choose fine weather for ensilage ; 
on the other hand, humidity is rather an advantage than other- 
wise. The introduction of salt is not necessary. It aids noth- 
ing in the preservation, which is due rather to a sort of slow 
boiling produced by the high temperature that is developed in 
the silo. 

Note. — This idea was proven to be a mistake by later experience. 

It is unnecessary to add that this method of preser- 
vation is also applicable to many other kinds of fodder, such 
as rye, rape, buckwheat before maturity of the straw, the 
stalks of Jerusalem artichokes, the leaves of beets, even clover 
and lucern, but above all, the aftermath, which it is sometimes 
impossible to cure. 

It is indeed a new era opened for poor countries. Let us 
hope that our Sologne will profit by it more than all others, 
which would be its just right, since from its bosom the impulse 
went forth. We can also congratulate ourselves that this rev- 



62 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAI2E. 

olution is due to the successful and persevering efforts of a 
member of our Society, M. Auguste Goffart. 



VII. 

EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH TO THE CENTRAL AGRICUL- 
TURAL COMMITTEE OF SOLOGNE, JUNE 25, 1876. 

By M. Boinyilliers, President. 

The preservation of maize as a green fodder by ensilage 
is a fixed fact, thanks to the persevering and happy experi- 
ments of our colleague, M. Goffart It is an immense benefit 
accrued to France, and especially to our Sologne ; therefore I 
have asked from the Minister of Agriculture for M. Goffart the 
decoration of the Legion of Honor. This reward, so well de- 
served, was not delayed. 

(This news was received by prolonged and unanimous 
applause.) 



OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 63 

INTRODUCTION OF ENSILAGE IN THE UNITED 

STATES. 

By Mr. Francis Morris, 

OF OAKLAND MANOR, HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND. 

I HAVE been requested to give my experience in growing 
com fodder, preser^dng it in silos, or trenches, and feeding it 
to stock. 

In the early summer of 1876, I received from France a 
newspaper containing an account of the plan they had adopted 
of raising maize, or Indian corn, cutting the same when in tas- 
sel, and burying it in trenches, covering it with earth, and 
feeding it out to their stock in the following winter or spring. 
This statement induced me to make the experiment. I sowed, 
on the 1st of August, 1876, about five acres, in drills three feet 
apart, and about a bushel of corn to the acre. This was worked 
twice with a cultivator, and was in tassel in the first days of 
October. We cut the same with a mowing-machine, carried 
it in wagons to the feed-cutter, cut it up in one-inch pieces, 
and added to it an amount of wheat straw, cut up in the same 
manner, equal to one-fifth of the com fodder. I had three 
silos bricked up inside a stone barn. The silos were about ten 
feet deep and four feet wide, and twenty-four feet long. The 
fodder was well packed down by trampling while the mix- 
ture was put away, and then covered with boards with large 
and heavy stones upon them. After the weights had pressed 
it down very considerably, they were taken ofi", the boards 
covered with straw, and then with clay ; the latter were 
thoroughly packed, and the whole was made a perfect protec- 
tion against the oxygen of the atmosphere penetrating through 
the clay or earth. The first silo was opened for use on Chiist- 
mas, and I fed all my milking cows with the same. Two of 
them refused to eat their portion, and when they left their 
stalls the other cows ate it; and from that day I have 



64 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

never fed it to an animal that has refused it — horses, mules, 
oxen, cows, sheep, and pigs will all leave any other feed and 
eat this by choice. 

In the year 1877, from want of personal attention and 
from a very dry time, my corn fodder was not as large a crop 
as it should have been, but it was sufficient to feed nearly a 
thousand head of stock for over two months ; it was equally 
good in quality as it was in 1876. 

For this year I have more than double the quantity of 
this fodder. I have made and filled a very large silo out of 
doors, which will probably hold from fifty to seventy-five 
tons, besides filling the three silos in my barn. I have a very 
large herd of stock dependent on my corn fodder for their 
winter feed, and I feel every confidence that it will furnish 
me all the feed I require. 

In a very long experience in raising stock, I have found 
corn fodder preserved as above stated the best food for milk- 
ing cows that I ever used. It is equal if not superior to 
June grass, and its cultivation is so easy, its preservation so 
inexpensive, that to-day no one can estimate its advantage to 
the agriculturist. The average hay crop of this State (New 
York) is not equal to one ton per acre, and every farmer 
knows what a costly crop it is to raise, to cure, and to preserve 
after it is raised, while our Indian corn crop will grow and 
flourish and tassel with the most ordinary care and tillage. 
Twenty-five tons to the acre, with a light dressing of barnyard 
manure, and working it twice with a cultivator, is a small crop. 
Add to the barnyard manure a dressing of guano, and more 
than double that quantity can be raised to the acre — I am al- 
most afraid to state the quantity that can be raised per acre. 
Suppose, however, we put the produce down to twenty-five 
tons per acre — and every one who has raised corn sowed broad- 
cast will recognize that this is a small crop — what will be the 
result in this good State of New York if one-tenth of her 
arable land is used in this way? Where is the stock to feed 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 65 

upon the new supply of food ? It is not here. We should 
have to double the number of our horses, cows, sheep, and all 
our stock, and after we have done that we should have to 
double them again. In fact, the amount of stock that could 
be maintained is so great that we should be wholly indepen- 
dent of the West, for the most liberal supply of beef and mut- 
ton will be supplied by the cultivation of our own lands. The 
beef that we shall have when we make a proper use of pre- 
served green food will be very different from the beef fatted 
on slops procured from the whiskey stills of Chicago and other 
cities of the West. The old adage, '^ No cattle no corn," is 
fully verified by our wheat production in this State. The 
lands are all so indifferent in quality that he must be a bold 
farmer who now sows a field of wheat ; but the corn-fodder, 
which it is now proposed to raise, will give such a yearly 
amount of manm*e as will enable every farmer to get a Avheat 
crop of thirty to forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and suc- 
ceed that by good clover. After that is done, his progress to 
a maximum yield of cereals will be very rapid, and I have 
every confidence that the crops of this country, blessed with 
its tropical sun, will exceed in value and importance that of 
any other agricultural country that can be named. 

Feancis Morris. 

Beceniber, 1878. 



[Translation.] 

LETTER FROM MONS. GOFFART. 

BuRTiN, December 4, 1878. 

Monsieur J. B. Brown, at Neiv York: 

I learn with pleasm-e that you have undertaken to translate 
into English my Manual on Ensilage. I have never had but 
one desire concerning it : that is to see the greatest possible 
publicity given to my work, and I devoutly hope for the sue- 



66 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

cess of your translation. Since I commenced my crusade in 
favor of maize, and of my method of ensilage , the cultivation of 
that gigantic grass has increased more than ten-fold in France, 
and the commerce of New York will find with us an immense 
channel of export, if it can deliver to us seed in good order; 
for too often the maize coming from America has been heated 
by a long sojourn upon the ship, and has more or less lost its 
germinative power. Whoever can guarantee us against that 
damage, and insure the sending us the best species, that is to 
say, the variety that is most productive as forage, will render 
us ;in immense service. See if you can come to our aid in 
this matter. 

My latest experiments have induced me to mix my fine 
straw and my cut straw with the maize at the time of ensilage. 
Mixed at the time of consumption, these straws are eaten with- 
out difficulty by the stock, but a very large proportion of them 
is to be found in the manure. It is not so when the straws 
have been softened and decomposed hy a sojourn of a few 
weeks or months with the maize in the silo. I do not exceed, 
hoAvever, five per cent of the weight of the maize. 

Sheep and cattle fatten with wonderful rapidity upon maize 
ensilage, with the addition of 8 to 10 per cent in weight of oil- 
cake meal. 

Two of my disciples cut and ensilaged last autumn, one 
120,000 kilogrammes of maize, the other 125,000, in one day's 
work. The more rapid the work the less it costs; and in 
America, where farming operations are upon an immense scale, 
there mil be needed powerful cutters that will exceed 12,000 
kilogrammes per hour. 

I continue to publish from time to time articles upon en- 
silage, which can be found in Le Journal d'' Agriculture of Paris. 
Be pleased to accept, Monsieur, the expression of my dis- 
tinguished sentiments. 

Aug. Goffart. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 



CONCLUSIONS OF THE TRANSLATOR. 

In England, all cereals used as food for man are called 
''corn," but those who first landed in America from that 
country found a new cereal used as food by the aborigines. 
They added it to their catalogue of corn with the prefix of In- 
dian. It is raised from Canada to Patagonia ; in Africa from 
the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope ; in Central Asia ; 
in Australia ; in Europe, in Hungary, France, and Spain. No 
other cereal, except rice, is so extensively cultivated, and in 
every part of the world alike the most valuable portion of the 
plant has been wasted. 

It is remarkable that the corn plant, after having been cul- 
tivated mostly for its fruit since its discovery in America, 
should have been, so to speak, rediscovered in Central France. 
For it seems by the foregoing that far more animal as well as 
human life can be suj)ported by the culture and preservation of 
the whole plant than by the fruit alone. The dried or partially 
dried stalk that our farmers have endeavored to compel their 
animals to eat, by adding to it la,bor and meal, is a pitiful 
nourishment as compared mth the sweet, fresh, juicy, preserved 
plant that they might have had for all these centuries, if they 
had only happened to think of it. It was a veritable inspira- 
tion that came to Monsieur Ooffart when he piled upon his en- 
silage the stocks and stones, and solved the problem by means 
of continuous ^pressure. These two words should become as 
famous as the Eureka of the Grreek philosopher. The first 
notice of this matter in this country seems to have been made 
in the American Agriculturist of June, 1875, with illustrations 
of the best methods then known, and quite a full description ; 
but at that time Monsieur Ooffart had not made his final dis- 
covery of continuous pressure, and my own experience, as 
well as I doubt not that of many others (and the author of the 
article himself was exceedingly doubtful as to the extent of the 



68 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

preservation or the value of the method), was that green fodder 
laid down in that way was sure to be more or less spoiled ; at 
any rate the loss would be sure to discourag-e anybody. Mr. 
Morris seems to have come at once very close to the correct 
method, and by frequent trampling- down he expelled suffi- 
cient air to very nearly prevent the forming of alcoholic fer- 
mentation ; but if Mr. Morris had happened to have made his 
experiment in such a way or in such a climate that the super- 
imposed earth had frozen too hard to settle, it would have been 
some time longer (if ever) before the world would have heard 
of his success. By such small accidents are great discoveries 
hastened or retarded in every field of evolution. A frozen 
arch of earth, from which the green-cut forage has settled 
aAvay, is not the proper way to preserve ensilage, as the writer 
has learned to his cost. The outdoor silo, as well as the in- 
door, should be so made and covered that the air can be expelled 
by continuous pressure, and rain and surface-water kept out; 
and a thatched roof will be found better than any other kind. 

And now that the proper way has been found, adapted to 
all countries wherever the plant can be grown — and no other 
has a wider domain — and which is also adapted to every other 
species of green crop that is capable of compression, what a 
future seems to be opening before the human race ! If he is 
held honorable who causes two blades of grass to grow where 
but one grew before, how much more should we honor the man 
who has shown us the way to make four animals thrive where 
scarcely one did before I A cow to an acre is a reasonable 
result of the practice of ensilage. The labor of mere exist- 
ence seems to have been almost annihilated. Our barns are to 
be turned upside down, and our mows located in the cellar. 

The unlimited production of meat, butter, cheese, milk, 
hides, horns, and all other animal products, ought to produce 
an immense increase of human comfort, population, and the 
knowledge, science, art, cultivation, and refinement that can 
only come from leisure and freedom from carking care. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 69 

And now, lest the universal Yankee nation (and the South- 
em people are nowadays quite as proportionately prolific in 
inventions as the Northern) shall seek to load this discovery 
with patents and patent rights, and j^atent lawsuits, I would 
say that I have invented, and give freely to the world, ever}' 
possible method of extracting air from the ensilage, whether 
by suction or pressure, chemical or mechanical exhaustion. 
Sheathing paper above the covering straw beneath the planks, 
has been used by Mr. Morris with excellent result. Baling, 
under pressure for transportation, with chemically-prepared 
cloths, has also been suggested, and I believe tried. 

As one of the greatest of its results, may we not look forward 
for a speedy advance in the value of real estate, for a levelling 
up of the value of lands to the mortgages that rest upon 
them? True, there will not be so much of it needed, as the 
cattle upon a thousand hills can be supported in a few valleys ; 
but with increasing wealth, the desire of ownersliip may retm-n 
to the people here as it is in England. And as the happiest of 
its results, may we not look forward to the use of this new- 
found leisure in the improvement of our politics, in the wrest- 
ing of all our governments from the trading politician, who 
pretends to represent one constituency while robbing every 
other, and assisting to rob his own*? 

Without a governing class or family, with legislators ayIio 
are patriotic rather than professional, and with office-holders 
who are servants rather than rulers of the people, may not this 
whole nation look forward to lighter taxes and an easier life as 
the grand ultimate result of the great invention of ensilage? 
Those of our people who have been driven by dire necessity 
to remove to Texas, Florida, and other outposts of civilization, 
may return to live again in the older sections of the country. 
We can raise cattle in New York cheaper than they can be 
driven in Texas to the railroad shipping point. 

A growth of farming villages, with all the social privileges, 
rather than a stupid life in scattered farm-houses, may be an- 



70 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

ticipated as one of the happy results of preserving the summer 
fatness of our land, hitherto wasted. 

The heat and hurry of haying will be avoided, for our 
new crop can be harvested on a wet as well as on a dry day. 
The danger of lightning to the fresh-filled steaming hay-barn 
will be avoided; the incendiary's torch will not avail him 
on this stored wealth ; the tramp, indifferent to the danger, 
can no longer smoke his pipe in the warm hay-mow. 

The grass crop of the United States has been of late years 
esteemed as more important and valuable than the cotton crop. 
'* Grass is king," is sometimes said. But for half the j^ear its 
throne has been the dry and dusty hay-mow. How much more 
royal will be its position henceforth, when fifty to one hundred 
tons per acre of juicy food can be surely and safely stored 
away each and every autumn ? The cattle fed unlimitedly 
will respond with sleek and well-fattened sides, and the excess 
of supply can be returned with little waste of labor to the field 
that bore it. 

The simplest and surest of all agricultural processes is 
the production of the stalk, and the use of this part of the 
plant for food, except by grazing, is quite modern. Tide- 
water meadows were until within a few generations the j)rin- 
cipal reliance for winter food of cattle by the farmers of the 
Coast States, and still are so in Florida and other Southern 
States. 

The ownership of a tide-water meadow was considered a 
very valuable adjunct to any farm ; the farmers along the 
Hudson River made quite a point of owning one not many 
years ago. I conclude that the proper winter sustenance of 
cattle in cold climates is a modern improvement. 

It may be found that the increase of pastoral life (history 
repeating itself with improvements) is the sole and true escape 
from the cloud of poverty and misery that seems to be settling 
down upon the richest and oldest as well as the poorest 
nations of the earth. 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF .MAIZE. 71 

Civilization, pushed too rapidly in the direction of mecha- 
nism and commerce, languishes. A complement is needed in an 
improved and widely adaptable agricultural system. At this 
epoch the world is startled with the news of a method for 
placing untold pastoral wealth, liitherto wasted, at the door of 
every rm*al dweller of the temperate zones. Does it not seem 
Hke the harbinger of better times, with ample food and cloth- 
ing for all I 



COMPOSITION OF MAIZE (GRAIN). 

Albuminoid Sugar, Cellulose Ash 

Water. Fat. or Starcli or or 

Flesh forming, and Gum. "Wood. Minerals. 

Mass. Golden 8-rowed 1251 494 1025 6937 135 158 

Mass. White Flint 1361 362 910 6910 313 135 

Mass. Red Flint 1134 460 881 7290 128 107 

Illinois 1022 340 922 7425 147 144 

Kansas 1195 340 1206 6947 202 110 

Burr's Sweet 1068 777 1169 6270 494 222 

Stowell's Evergreen Sweet. 1086 766 1110 6586 263 189 



EXTRACT FROM AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, JAN., 1879, SHOW- 
ING THE DISADVANTAGE OF DRYING CORN-FODDER. 

Bi/ the Author of " Walks and Talks on the Farm^^^ "■ Harris on the Pig^' etc. 

A LAEGE farmer in Michigan writes that he has 20 acres of 
clover which it will not pay to mow. He wants to put it in 
wheat next fall, and asks, "How would it do to drill in com for 
fodder previously ? Can it be cut with a reaper and cured in 
time to sow wheat"?" — I wrote him, " No." Corn-fodder can be 
cut with a reaper, better and far cheaper than by hand. But 
it cannot be cured and removed from the land in time for wheat. 
Some time ago I made a few stacks of corn-fodder to see how 



72 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

it would keep, and we are now feeding it. I cannot recom- 
mend the plan. We never had a dryer and hotter or better 
time to cm.-e corn-fodder than the past fall. The fodder was 
cut with a reaper and made into sheaves like wheat, and stuck 
up in small stooks to cure. Nicer fodder I never saw. It was 
as diy as we can ever hope to get it. Two or three acres of 
it was on low land, and we drew off the fodder and put it in 
six or seven stacks. It was in prime order. But it heated more 
or less in the stacks. The cows eat it with avidity, preferring 
it to hay, but the sheep do not like it as well as hay, while the 
corn-fodder that is now standing in large stooks in the field is 
highly relished by the slieej). I conclude, therefore, that the 
only way to preserve corij-fodder is to make it into large well- 
shaped stooks in the field where it grew, and draw it in as 
wanted during the winter. Or rather, di'aw in enough at a 
time during favorable weather to last a week or ten days. 



FOOD INGREDIENTS— CHEMICAL TERMS EXPLAINED. 

Water. — If a piece of wood or wisp of hay be diied some 
time in a hot oven, more or less water will be driven off. The 
water in feeding-stuffs varies from 80 or 90 lbs. in every 100 
lbs. of young grass or fodder-corn, to only 8 or 10 lbs. to the 
100 in dry straw or hay. 

Organic Substance. — If the dried wood or hay be burned, 
most of it will pass off as gas, vapor, or smoke. The part thus 
burned away is the organic substance. The residue, 

The Ash contains the mineral matters — that is, potash, 
lime, phosphoric acid, etc., of the plant. The most important 
part for our present j)urpose, is the organic, the combustible 
matter. This consists of three kinds of ingredients : albumin- 
oids, carbohydrates, and fats. The main point in economical 



CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 73 

feeding is to secure the right proportions of these at the lowest 
cost. 

Albuminoids ; also called protein compounds, proteids and 
flesh-formers, contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. 
They thus differ from the carbohydrates and fats which con- 
tain no nitrogen. The name albuminoids comes from albumen, 
which we know very well as the white of eggs, and it is found 
in milk. The fibrin of blood and muscle (lean meat), and the 
casein (curd) of milk, are also albuminoids. Indeed, the solid 
parts of blood, nerves, lean meat, gristle, skin, etc., consist 
chiefly of albuminoids. In plants they are equally important. 
Plant albumen occurs in nearly all vegetable juices, especially 
in potatoes and wheat, casein or legumin in beans and peas, 
and fibrin in the gluten of wheat, the basis of what farmer-boys 
call "wheat gum." Clover, bran, beans, peas, oil-cake, and 
flesh and meat scrap, are rich in albuminoids. 

Carbohydrates consist of carbon and hydrogen. The most 
important are starch, sugar, and cellulose (woody fibre). They 
make up a larger part of the solids of plants, but only a little 
of them is stored in the animal body. Potatoes, wheat, poor 
hay, straw, and corn-stalks consist largely of carbohydi'ates. 

Fats have more carbon than carbohydrates, and, like them, 
have no nitrogen. Fat meat, tallow, lard, fish oil, the fat (but- 
ter) of milk, and linseed oil are familiar examples of fats. In- 
dian corn, oil-cake, cotton-seed and linseed, are rich in fatty 
matters. — From American Agriculturist, Jan., 1879. 



FARMING FOR PROFIT. 



The most profitable farming is that which gives the largest 
returns for the smallest comparative outlay. This statement 
is based on business principles, but it is not always apparently 
true, for sometimes a farmer gets large crops with small out- 



74 CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 

lay by the use of means which draw heavily u^^on the re- 
serve forces of the soil. The latter should be reckoned into 
the expense account, but usually is not, though if such a course 
is continued, it results in exhaustion. To revise the first state- 
ment then : that kind of farming is most profitable which gives 
the largest returns for the expense incurred, without decreas- 
ing one's capital by exhausting the soil. 

English agriculture dates its rise from the beginning of 
the fattening of animals for market. The most fertile farms in 
the Eastern States to-day, are, as a rule, those that are devoted 
to stock and dairy-farming. The production and sale of large 
crops of grain, potatoes, and other field crops, without any re- 
turn of fertility, has caused the present sterility of the many 
thousand acres of comparatively exhausted farm lands, West, 
South, and East. If their owners had kept live stock for the 
consumption of the crops, and sold only the animal products 
and the surplus grain, etc., they might have been even more 
productive to-day than in the beginning. The growth of 
plants does not exhaust the soil, but on the contrary makes it 
richer, so long as the mineral and nitrogenous elements of 
plant-food are returned to the land. The action of the roots 
is to extract food material from the rocks (as we may regard 
the inorganic matter of the soil), and of the leaves to draw it 
from the air, and to store it in the soil; but if more than the 
material thus obtained is removed and not returned, exhaustion 
necessarily follows. 

By feeding crops to animals, the larger portion of the es- 
sential mineral and nitrogenous portions are returned to the 
soil in the resulting manure ; particularly is this the case in 
fattening mature animals, and in the production of butter and 
pork. An animal extracts from its food, nitrogen for its mus- 
cles, phosphate for its bones, some potash, and the vegetable 
oils and other carbonaceous matter for its fatty tissues and for 
respiration. The nitrogen, phosphates and potash, we must 
supply to the soil, as plants seldom obtain these materials from 



CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 75 

natural sources so rapidly as we remove them in crops sold ; 
the material for oils, sugar, starch, and other carbonaceous 
matters are furnished to the plants from air and soil in ample 
quantities to meet all demands. Now, a growing- animal stores 
up the first three of these food materials. A mature animal, 
on the contrary, only uses enough of them to make good the 
wastes of the body, but these wastes are all found in the ex- 
crements ; so that practically a fattening animal removes none 
of those constituents of its food that are valuable for manure. 
We can, therefore, feed the home-grown crops and purchased 
food to matm-e animals, and get nearly or quite its full value 
twice over, in beef and in manure for the production of more 
crops. 

Similar principles apply in feeding swine. Pork is for the 
most part composed of the fatty matter which costs nothing in 
the crop. Hence the value of hog-manure, with which every 
farmer is familiar. In butter-making also, very little if any 
fertility is removed from the farm in the butter sold, at it is 
composed wholly of fatty compounds. This fact is illustrated 
in practice by the exceptional fertility of butter dairy farms, 
which, instead of becoming sterile are continually growing 
more fertile. These facts indicate that the profitable farming 
of the futm^e in many sections, is to be, as it is to-day, in in- 
creased attention to fattening animals and dairying. — From 
American Agriculturist, Jan., 1879. 







■ '-t-/v. y. 



This new fodder plant may be found to be even more productive than the corn-plant, on account of the several cut- 
tings that may be made in one season. If properly ensilaged itwill doubtless be more attractive and nutritious than if 
dried ; and the same method will undoubtedly preserve this also. 

The following- article is from the pen of the well-known Horticulturist, Peter Henderson: 

Pearl Millet has been cultivated for some years as a forage plant in some of the Southern States, as "African Cane," 
■Egyptian Millet," "Japan Milh-t," and in some places as "Horse Millet," but little was known of it at the North be- 
fore last year, and then only in such small quantities as to hardly allow of a fair trial. From what we saw of it in 1877, 
we determined to give it a thorough trial this season. A piece of good strong loamy ground was prepared as if for a beet 
or turnip crop, by manuring with stable-manure, at the rate cf 10 tons to the acre, plowing 10 inches deep, and thorough- 
ly harrowing. The Millet was then sown in drills 18 inches apart, at the rate of S quarts to the acre. We sowed on the 
15th of May; in 12 days the plants were up so that a cultivator could be run between the rows, after which no further 
culture was necessary, for the growth became so rapid and luxuriant as to crowd down every weed that attempted to get 
a foothold. The first cutting was made Tuly ist— 45 days after sowing; itwas then 7 feet high, covering the whole ground, 
and the crop, cut 3 inches above the ground, weighed, orrecn. at the rate of 30 tons per acre ; this, when rfrzVrf, gave 614 
tons per acre as hay. After cutting, a second growth started, and was cut August 15—45 days from time of the first cut- 
ting. Its height was 9 feet ; it weighed this time at the rate of 55 tons to the acre, green, and S tons dried. The third 
crop started as rapidly as the second, but the cool September nights lessened its tropical luxuriance, so that this crop, 
which was cut on October ist. only weighed 10 tons green, and 1)^ ton dried. The growth was simply enormous, thus : 
Ist crop in 45 days, gave 30 tons green, or ey^ tons dry ; 2nd crop in 45 days, gave 55 tons green, or 8 tons dry ; 3d crop 
in 45 days, gave 10 tons green, or ij^ ton dry. The aggregate weight being 95 tons of green fodder in 135 days from date 
of sowing, and 16 tons when dried to hay. This exceeds the clover meadows of Mid-Lothian, which, when irrigated by 
the sewerage from the City of Edinburgh, and cut every four weeks, gave an aggregate of 75 tons of green clover per 
acre. There is little doubt that Pearl Millet is equally as nutritious as corn-fodder, which it resembles even more than it 
does any of the other Millets. We found that all our horses and cattle ate it greedily, whether green or dry. If sowing 
in drills is not practicable, it may be sown broadcast, using double the quantity of seed — say 16 quarts per acre. The 
ground should be smoothed by the harrow, and again lightly harrowed after sowing ; if rolled after harrowing, all the bet- 
ter. I know of no farm crop that will better repay high manuring, but so great is its luxuriance, that it will produce a 
better crop without manure than any other plant I know of. In those parts of the Southern States where hay cannot be 
raised, this is a substitute of the easiest culture, and being of tropical origin, it will luxuriate in their long hot summers. 
Even though our Northern seasons may be too short to mature the seeds, our experiments in New Tersey this summer 
show what abundant crops may be expected if the similar conditions are secured. Pearl Millet as a fodder-plant presents 
a new feature in our agriculture, and I feel sure that within ten years we shall wonder how we ever got on without it. 
Besides our own testimony given above, we have received the most satisfactory letters from experienced men in differ- 
ent parts of the country to whom we sent seed of Pearl Millet for trial, and all are unanimous as to its enormous produc- 
tiveness and great value. From all we have seen and can learn, we are fully convinced that Pearl Millet is to be one of 
the great fodder plants of the future. 



THE ENSILAGE CUTTER 



OF THE NEW YORK PLOW COMPANY. 




This machine has been arranged especially for the purpose of cut- 
ting large quantities of green crops, such as green corn-stalks, millet, 
&c. It can be run with a good two-horse power or with portable 
engine, and do a great amount of work. 

Of course smaller cutters can be used, with more or less execution, 
but in providing the proper machinery for the new method of preserving 
winter fodder, it is all important to have it operate rapidly, and there- 
fore economically. 

This machine feeds itself, without danger to the o])erator, and is so 
strong that it cannot be broken or worn out with honest usage. It 
will cut seven, different lengths, from tV to 3 inches, by changing the 
pulleys in. accordance with the directions attached. It will cut four to 
five tons per hour of green corn-stalks of the length of -1*0-0 of an inch. 
It will also cut one to two tons per hour of dry fodder. It is also valu- 
able in cutting straw to spread upon land for manure. 



THE ENSILAGE CUTTER. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOE. CUTTING FODDER DIFFERENT LENGTHS. 

All the pxiUeys in thia list go on the end of pulley shaft next to 12i-inoh piiUey. 
25 inch pulley will make the machine cut i of an inch long. 

* • " " " 42-1(10 " " 






linch 
2 inches 



The machine is set up to cut 42-100 of an inch long. 
Purtlier informatioa suppUed Ij the NEW YORE PLOW COMPANYj 55 Beekman St., New York. 



EECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOWS. 

The improved American plow holds a high rank among 
the implements of modern husbandry, not only at home, but 
in the foreign market. In form, materials and construction, it 
appears to be all that it is capable of being, and yet there are 
constant developments of new points of excellence. The most 
obvious improvements within the last few years consist in the 
use of hard metal, first for the edge, and later for the entire 
wearing surface. Chilling the edges and point of the share 
and the bottom of the land-side, was the first step in the line 
of progress, made about thirty years ago, but within the last 
ten years attention has been du'ected to the importance of re- 
ducing the friction of the mold-board. Hardened steel was in- 
troduced for this pui'pose, and is still recognized as the best ma- 
terial where soil is wholly free from grit, but it was found that 
a chilled sm-face of cast iron, in combination with the chilled 
share and land-side, was more easily and economically kept 
in repair in all soils containing grit. The well-known process 
of chilling first resorted to, consisted in rmming the molten 
metal against the surface of cold iron. This method, while 
rendering the metal harder, made it correspondingly brittle, 
and required great care in the mixture of the iron to make the 
chill penetrate uniformly. This plan also required a method 
of annealing, sometimes with hot water, or by building fires 
on the back of the mold-board, and sometimes by covering 
with heated sand. 

Later improvements in mixing metal have been success- 
fully made, so as to secure entire hardness throughout, without 
the chilling process. Plows made in this way are usually 
known by appropriate names, such as " Adamant," &c. We 
learn through a large plow-making establishment in New 



UECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOWS. 79 

York (the New York Plow Company), that long experience 
has taug-ht them that steel in a certain condition will mix with 
melted pig iron, and with the addition of certain chemicals 
will make a homogeneous metal by pouring it into molds at 
the right time, wliich time is ascertained by means of its color. 
In this way the result is '4iardness, uniformity and strength." 

In former years, plows made of cast iron were so rough 
that farmers were severely tried in keeping them bright. As 
plows have grown harder, the polish is more difficult to pro- 
duce, as well as more durable, and on the metal here referi'ed 
to, is said to suffer little from coiTosion. As the friction of 
the plow is equal to about thu^ty-five per cent of the whole 
force of the draught, every expedient to reduce it is important 
to the plowman. 

A still better improvement in this direction was recently 
achieved by the introduction of a reversible point in the share, 
which thus becomes self-sharpening, and enables the farmer to 
keep the bottom of the plow level, there- 
by avoiding the friction that arises from a 
projection of the point of the share below 
the general level. It has been found that 
the effect of a sharp point is to sharpen 
the wing also. Among other improve- 
ments is the setting of the beam in the 
centre instead of one side of the line of 
resistance, which is adjustable at the standard so as to produce 
a balance, avoiding side draughts. — From Iron Age. 

N. B. — All these improvements are contained in the 
Adamant Plows of the New York Plow Company. 








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JUNE 1, 1.879 



ADDEN^DA 

To ACCOMPANY "ENSILAGE OF MAIZE," by J. B. BROWN, 

55 Beekman Steeet, New York. 



EXTEAOT FROM JOURNAL DE L'AGRICULTURE, 

October 19, 1878. 

M. A. GOFFART, desirous of making kuown the remarkable results that he has ob- 
tained from the cultivation and preservation of maize-forage, invited to his celebrated 
farm at Burtin, on Oct. 12, many agriculturists who are interested in this important 
question. A hundred accepted liis invitation, and they received at Burtin the most 
generous hospitality. Among those present we should mention the Prince Catacuzene, 
alarge agriculturist of Southern Russia aud Russian Commissioner to the ExjDosition ; 
M. Fernandez de Neda, Cominissiouer from Spain ; M. Rob Runeberg, Commissioner 
from Finland ; M. Deutch, large agriculturist in Hungary ; M. Boitel, Inspector-Gen- 
eral of Agriculture of France ; M. J. A. Barral, Secretary of National Society of Agri- 
culture of France; aud the oflSicers of eight other agricultural societies of France. 
There were also a director of a school-farm, a director of a penal colony, proprietors 
of estates in different parts of France, mayors of cities, manufactui-ers of agricultural 
macliinery ; also Monsieur de FontenailJes, a distinguished silvi-cultivator (forest tree 
cultivator, a braucLi of industry now attracting much attention in Europe, as a re- 
medy for drouglit). We left Paris in the morning by vspecial train to Nouan-le-Fuze- 
lier. A few minutes' ride by carriage and we are at Burtin, where a magnificent ban- 
quet, i)repared under an elegant tent, awaits the guests. The first toast is to M. Gof- 
fart, the last to Sologue, "too little kuown, and which the skillful pioneers of the 
thirty years last x)ast have so happily transformed." After the banquet came the 
more important business. The oijeration of gathering and ensilaging the maize had 
been under way for several days. One of the silos was already full, the second was 
being filled. The gigantic maize is brought from the field in wagons, which stop just 
behind the feed-cutter. The stalks .are fed to the machine, which is run by a steam- 
engine. They^are cut into disks of one centimetre long (about 4-10 inch), and car- 
ried by an elevator above the wall of the silo, and fall within it. A man spreads the 
layer, a woman tramples around the silo. When it is full it will be covered with 
plank, which will be loaded with large stones about 400 kilogrammes (about 900 lbs.) 
per square metre (about 10^ square feet). It will be perfectly preserved, without fer- 
mentation, until the time when it is needed for use. In the month of May we took 
from the last silo at Burtin the last layer of maize. It had the same temperature that 
it had at the time of ensilage, and it presented not a trace of any deterioration. 
There is no doubt that the result will be the same this year. All the agriculturists 



82 ADDENDA TO 



who have followed exactly the directions of M. Goffart have obtained the same re- 
sult, and their numerous testimonials bear witness to it. (For full description of M. 
Goffart's process, see Ensilage of Maize, &c.) There are three silos for maize, and one 
for oats, cut green, which was filled in tbe Spring, and which has been fed out to 
the working animals. 

M. Goffart has to-day 68 horned cattle in his stables, six horses, and one'mule. 
With his resources of maize fodder, he can not only support for seven months 150 
horned cattle, but also put them in condition for the butcher, upon 32 hectares (about 
79 acres). After having visited the fields of maize, the numerous guests departed, de- 
lighted with what they had seen. 



THE CULTIVATION AND PEESERVATION OF MAIZE-FODDEE. 

Letter from Monsieur A. Goffart, April 28, 1878. 

My last silo, more than 300 cubic metres in capacity, will be emptied by May 
10th. You will remember how my fiosted maize last September had to be cut as 
quickly as possible, when it had only attained two-thirds of its growth. The frost had 
completely stopped its growth, and the blackened stalks would have fallen to the 
grouud at the first rain. I cut it, as I always do, one centimetre (about 4-10 inch) 
long, and I ensilaged it without any addition of salt or straw or cut hay. The preser- 
vation has been, and is still, perfect; not a kilogramme of it has been wasted. Hav- 
ing been cut when so very young, it has produced a very tender fodder, the nutritive 
power of which was evidently superior to that of my previous ensilage. The question 
arises, whether this increase of nutritive value compensates for the loss of weight in 
a crop cut ^prematurely. I do not think it does. It would need to be 30 per cent, at 
least superior to that of maize cut when the ear is in the milky state, for the loss of 
weight is at least in that proportion. 

Comparative experiuieuts and analyses of our skillful chemists will soon enlighten 
us on this important subject. 

Another very remarkable eff'ect upon ensilage by frosted vegetation is this : while 
maize ensilaged in ordinary condition takes on the alcoholic fermentation in twelve to 
fifteen hours after contact with the air, the frosted maize required two, and some- 
times three days. The farmer, therefore, need not be alarmed at these premature 
frosts, but should be ready to ensilage his crop immediately upon their appearance. 1 
find that the tall Mexican corn becomes exceedingly hard, and quickly dulls the 
knives of the cutting machine. I shall not use that kind again. 

Fel). 1, 1879. — I now give you the facts which I have gained from the experience of 
the past year, at my farm at Burtiu. I find that I was mistaken when I advised that 
the silo should be filled as quickly as possible. The shrinkage or subsidence which 
takes place in the first few days of the compression, is so considerable that the upper 
half of our silos are soon empty, and therefore we lose one-half of the capacity, and 
the expense of establishing them is just doubled. I now advise that the silos should 
not be filled too quickly. In recharging a silo that has been commenced with a layer 



THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 83 



of fresh maize of fifty centimetres (20 inches) each day, yon will keep sufficiently ahead 
of the fermentation during the ensilage, and the spontaneous slirinkage will have been 
sufficient at the end of eight or ten days, of daily refilling, so that the subsequent suhsi- 
dence will not exceed one-tenth of the total height. My silos, filled this Aiituum, are 
more than five metres high, and only show a void at the top of half a metre. By hav- 
ing two or several silos of a certain capacity, the work can go on continuously. Some 
farmers have ensilaged this year 100,000 to 120,000 kilogrammes per day (220,000 to 
264,000 lbs.). 

My maize is cut in the field by women, with sickles. Tliey have great skill in the 
use of that implement, and eight women will cut easily one liectare a day (2^ acres). 
They receive 15 francs per hectare, and therefore earn about two francs a day each. I 
found a difficulty in roofing over my three united silos, on account of the great size of 
the group thus formed. On this account I would prefer to unite only two silos, and in- 
crease the length, while preserving the other dimensions, so as to obtain the same 
capacity. Something would be gained also by replacing the semicircnlar ends with 
arcs of a circle of a greater radius, which would diminish the exi)ense of roofing, and 
increase the capacity, without, I think, endangering the preservation of the maize. 

The proximity of the silos to the stables is important, as to economy of labor, but 
it is an advantage sometimes to put them at a distance, as the land may be more suit- 
able. The solidity and the smooth working of the cutting machine are of great im- 
portance. The French machine, with eight horse-power, will cut 100,000 to 120,000 
kilogrammes per day, in pieces of one centimetre lung (4-10 inch), and costs 800 francs. 
If water invades a silo, whether it enters frotn without or from compression upon 
maize that is very wet at time of ensilage, it should not be wasted ; cattle will drink 
that kind of grass-soup with great avidity. 

When I opened, last October, the silo in which I had enclosed in May about 60,- 

000 kilogrammes of green rye, I found it darker in color than usual, and it exhaled a 
disagreeable odor, indicating the presence of butyric acid. Although this odor is dis- 
agreeable to man, it does not cause to auimals the same repugnance, and my rye -W^as 
eaten entirely, and without the least hesitation. Never before had my ensilaged rye 
presented this kind of alteration. The alcoholic fermentation, though less than in 
maize, had always before developed sufficiently to make it agreeable, both iu taste 
and smell, to both man and beast. 

There was, therefore, an abnormal effect, a special alteration, which it is import- 
ant to avoid, since, when it passes certain limits, it will disgust the animals and also 
injure their health, if we persist in feeding it to them. At the time this rye was cut 
down for ensilage it had been fallen for a long time, and the foot for more than eight 
inches had yellowed ; it was already undergoing the commencement of decomposition. 
To prevent this I used salt iu considerable quantity, but it had not served to neutral- 
ize the effect of the evil ; the butyric fermentation had already invaded the ensilaged 
vegetation, and this fermentation remained, notwithstanding the presence of the salt. 

1 believe, however, that iu this case salt was useful, suspending by its antiseptic 
qualities the decomposition, and assisting to excite the appetite of the animals, who, 
perhaps, without the salt, would have refused it, since the more important condiment, 
alcohol, was absent. 

I ensilaged iu September several wagon loads of clover that was fully ripe and 
had fallen for several weeks, and though I took special care with it, and compressed 
it very energetically, and mixed salt with it, viz., 3 kilogrammes to the thousand, on 
discharging the silo a.t the end of December, I found a blackened mass, viscous, and 
nearly insipid. 



84 ADDENDA TO 



This ensilage was entirely eaten by tlie animals without any aversion, but it 
quickly contracted butyric acid, and if it had been exposed to the air for a consider- 
able time the animals would have manifested an increasing aversion, and finished by 
refusing to eat it. I have frequently observed this in ensilaging whole maize. I give 
this explanation witli hesitation, because so much obscurity still rests upon the science 
of fermentations. When the butyric fermentation permeates an ensilaged mass, and 
this mass is exposed to the air, does there not form, to the detriment of the nitrogen 
contained in tljat mass, a liberation of butyrate of ammonia, which impoverishes the 
alimentary matter and finishes by taking away all its nutritive power? The animals 
thereupon refuse to take into their stomachs a food which is fictitious, its nourishment 
being exhausted. 

Vegetation which has been attacked by butyric acid, before cutting, in the field, 
needs also to be covered and compressed at once, or the air that is not expelled will 
increase the activity of the pre-existing acid. Prickly comfrey, notwithstanding great 
pains taken, I have found refractory to alcoholic fermentation, and when exposed to 
the air quickly becomes invaded by butyric acid, requiring quick consumption in 
order to save it. While this plant is a very excellent fodder, it is well known to be 
poor in saccharine matter. Therefore, alcoholic fermentation may fail in two cases: 
when sugar is not abundant in the ensilaged material ; when a considerable altera- 
tion existing at the time of ensilage prevents its development. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF M. De BEAUQUESNE, 

One of the Most Distinguished Agricultuhists of France, 

December 17, 1878. 

" I am preparing a series of articles on ensilage. I send you the part relative to the 
cost. I have a feed-cutter, with three knives, cost 800 francs ($160). I tie the stalks 
in bundles of about 10 kilogrammes, using for that one of the stalks. Two men take 
the maize from the unloaders and place it on a narrow table prolonging the box of the 
cutter; another man passes it along to the man that feeds it to the machine. T have 
two men in the silo. Thus I make the cost : 

Five laborers at 3.5 cents $1 75 

One mechanic at cutter - 50 

One engineer 70 

Coal, 330 lbs - 1 50 

Oil 15 

Use of engine . 2 00 

Use of feed-cutter 1 00 

Incidentals 40 

$8 00 



THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 85 

" Ten bundles pass easily per miniTte, making 225 lbs. or 13,500 lbs. per hour ; but 
as there is time lost in oiling and examining knives and removing them to sharpen, I 
only reckon 9,000 lbs. per hour as regular result. This gives a net cost of 20 cents per 
2,250 lbs. Ce n^est Hen. I have not tried with a horse-power, but I have it from a 
neighbor that it costs 60 cents for 2,250 lbs. This is still endurable. I am about to 
make an experiment to determine the comparative nutritive value of hay and ensi- 
lage. One of my milch cows has fed a montli on the latter. I believe that Us nutri-. 
tive value is more than one-third, and I shall not be surprised if 220 lbs. of maize are 
wortli at least 110 lbs. of hay, and probably moi'e. 

" I have just let a farm on shares, and the party stipulated that I should let to him 
my steam-engine and feed-cutter, because there was a silo, and it was only for that 
reason that he took the place. I say frankly that I believe we have made a mistake 
in our successive plantings of maize, in order to feed it green. It would do better to 
harvest it all at the same time, and ensilage it all. There would be more economy, 
and the maize that we should use, after being three weeks in the silo, would be more 
nourishing. I shall do it so nest season. The later planting often gives b?d results, 
and the ground is not so easily worked." 

Monsieur Gofifart remarks upon this letter ; " My ensilages the past year reached 
more than 132,000 lbs. per day, and the cost per ton was 25 per cent, less than his 
figures, which can be explained by the fact that my machinery was more powerful 
than his. 

" I agree with M. de Beauquesne as to the relative value of ensilaged maize and 
hay. Ensilaged maize at Burtla is worth in nutritive power one-half that of hay; 
but our hay in Sologne is poor, and in other countries the relative value of maize may 
decline to one -third. 

"M. de Beauquesne, after giving in detail the different expenses of ensilage, 
adds, 'it is nothing.' I will go farther than he, and I will say, this expense consti- 
tutes a considerable saving. The expense of cutting and ensilaging a million of kilo- 
grammes of maize is, at most, a thousand francs. Instead of proceeding, from day 
to day, to cut up the maize for the day's sustenance of your animals, you prepare in 
15 days the food for 200 days ; you have put your maize in such a condition that the 
stable-man has no other trouble but to fill his basket in the silo and empty it in the 
manger. Here are some figures in proof of this statement. 

" On a farm in the valley of the Loire are fattened each winter a certain number 
of animals, with beets, haj^, and oil meal. Twelve animals on this diet require the 
steady work of a strong laborer, who washes and cuts the beets and chops the hay 
or straw. This laborer is paid 45 cents per day. He receives, therefore, 3| cents per 
head. At Burtin, with the ensilage at three steps from the stable, two men, at the 
same wages, take care of 80 animals, making a daily expense of 11 cents per head. The 
difference in favor of Burtin is more than 10 francs per day, and this saving is more 
than double the sum expended for ensilage. 

" The last paragraph of the letter, relative to the advantage of feeding only en- 
silaged maize, even in summer, agrees perfectly with my ideas. I wrote in 1875, in 
one of my pami^hlets, 'It should never be lost sight of that to cut, and to ensilage 
in a way to obtain a good fermentation, is to increase enormously the alimentary 
value of maize; and I ask if, even in autumn, when the fresh maize is abundant, it 
would not be an advantage to pass it through the silo.' 

" In order to settle this question careful and intelligent experiments are necessary, 
and no one is better able to resolve it with authority than M. de Beauquesne." 



86 ADDENDA TO 



FROM M. GOFFART'S SECOND EDITION. 

Great care should be taken in the construction of silos. The walls should be 
capable of I'esisting the pressure from the loaded mass when full, and from the sur- 
rounding earth when empty. Too much economy in their construction is unprofitable. 
Wheu the underground portion is cemented (which costs only half as much as brick 
wall), great care should be taken as to the material as well as the workmanship^ 
Those who have a convenient declivity can save much expense by building the silo 
so that the upper portion will be level with a platform on which the loads can be dis- 
charoed, and on which the cutter can be set up, so that the cut fodder can fall into 
the silo, thereby avoiding the expense and use of an elevator. The entrance to each 
silo I formerly closed with boards fitted in grooves in the masonry, but I now close 
them with a temporary wall of dry masonry plastered inside, to be removed wheu the 
silo is opened for use. One hour of a mason to each port is sufficient. 

The most important question is the covering of the ensilage. It should be a layer 
of dry straw not cut, six to twelve inches thick, spread evenly. Do not use aftermath 
or short, soft straw, as it is liable to become impermeable and to imprison any vapor 
which may issue. Eye straw is best ; after that, wheat and oat. It is important that 
the vapor should escape, as there always will be more or less from the upper portion 
of the mass. 

Boards are more suitable than planks to lay upon this, because they conform more 
readily to the inequalities of the surface in settling ; the centre always becomes more 
depressed than the portions near the walls. But I expect to use bricks instead of 
boards, so as to form a compact layer, and of sufficient height to give the necessary 
weight. Iron weights with a ring cast in will be still better, in those countries wherj 
iron is cheap, ou account of convenience of handling. When removed they should 
not be thrown down, but piled on the walls. I shall also use sacks of phosphates in- 
tended for manure. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM M. GOFFAET, 

May 13, 1879. 

The fields of France present at this time a sad aspect. We shall apparently har- 
vest in 1879 little hay and very little grain. I have lost by water all the rye that I 
intended to feed green this spring, but I find that I have sufficient ensilage to last till 
August. I have fattened this winter 43 animals, which I have sold in the markets of 
Paris and Orleans. They are of the large races of Niveruaise and Charolaise, and 
have averaged 1,80U lbs. I added to their rations of ensilaged maize 10 per cent of 
palm, peanut or cotton-seed cake. I feed also 2|- lbs. per day to the milch cows, 
which has wonderfully increased the yield of milk, and about 1| lb. per day to ani- 
mals under 18 months. In America you can use to good advantage distillery grains 
for this purpose. Say to your countrymen that such of them as would like to visit 
France, and study the ensilages of Burtin upon the spot, may feel sure of meeting 
a kind reception there. 



THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 87 



EXTRACT FROM LETTER OF EDWARD H. KNIGHT, • 

Author of Mechanical Dictionary, Commissioner to Paris Exposition. 

Washington, March, 1879. 
" Your book came safely to hand. I have read it through, and although I had 
seen the models of the silos at the Paris Exposition, and heard a great deal of occa- 
sional chat on the subject, I had no adequate idea of its imjiortance. 1 have a farm 
on a river bottom, and buildings in which silos can be conveniently erected, and I am 
heartily glad that I met a leading spirit." 



REMARKS 



One question that cannot as yet be answered by experience is the degree of cold 
that a silo filled above ground can be subjected to without injury. I presume that 
the chemical action which exists even in the compressed material, will be sufficient to 
prevent any injury from this cause, but probably a small protection on the outside, or 
north side of wall will insure its safety. 

It is probable that maize sown broadcast is not proper matter for ensilage, as its 
saccharine capacity is less developed than when plan ted in drills; no sugar, no alcohol. 
There is a French maxim, " Who has hay has bread." Since fodder supports cattle, 
cattle yield manure which brings fertility to the soil and abundance to the harvest. 
The one thing lacking to the South aiul East of this great country is cattle. I be- 
lieve that " silos " and " ensilage" will supply this lack, and that everywhere and all 
over^ cattle raising and fattening will take tlie front rank in agricultural iudustr3^* 

The price of Ensilage Cutter is $125 at New York. It is strong enough for any 
kind of power, while it can be run even by one horse. Weight about 1,000 lbs. 

I shall be happy to receive and to print any additional facts that may be ascer- 
tained upon this subject. It certainly seems to promise to contribute more to the 
happiuess of the human race than any other physical discovery that has ever been 
made. The suggestion that green grass or green fodder is not the most economical or 
profitable food for cattle iu the summer season is certainly a revolutionarj' idea. 

M. Goffart states that the processes which have been recommended by a certain 
French writer, and whicli were unfortunately published extensively in this country, 
were defective, and have caused the loss of much money to several agriculturists in 
France, who to-day do not like to hear the subject mentioned. It is greatly to be de- 
sired that American agriculturists should start on the right track aud not be misled 
or discouraged by careless or superficial articles on the subject. 

Ensilage may be not only a store for winter use, but against drought as well. 

J. B. BROWN, 

55 Beekman Street, New York. 



* Kansas exhibited, at Centennial Exposition, a stalk of maize 21 feet high. A man, by 
reaching up with umbrella or cane, could touch the lowest ear. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO.'S 




R0CKIN6-TEETH SMOOTHING HARROW 

And BROADCAST WEEDER. 



Patented June 25, 1878. 



When drawn from one end, the teeth are perpendicnlar ; it is then a pulverizer. 
When drawn from the opposite end, the teeth incline backward, which makes it a 
smoothing harrow ; hence, it is of double the value of other smoothing harrows. 

Other smoothing harrows have fixed teeth, which flatten and bevel off on one side 
and do not cover seed or clear themselves as well as these rocking-teeth do. 

The teeth of this harrow are made of |-inch round steel, tempered in oil„and 
coiled around a stud, which gives them sufficient elasticity to prevent breakage even 
in rough land. They are attached to the frame by bolts, and can be easily removed 
if necessary. The frame is made of the best w^hite oak or ash, well braced, and bolted 
together so that i\ny piece can be easily and cheaply replaced. 

By means of the adjustable draft bar, this harrow can be adjusted so that the 
teeth will have a greater or less angle to the line of draft ; i. e., they will cut under 
more or less as desired. On this account it is better adapted to both weeding and 
pulverizing than any other harrow. 

Single Frame, width of track H feet, weight 115 lbs $15.00 

Double " " "9 " " 220 lbs. 25.00 

It is very easy to save the cost of this Harrow by the increased yield of grain or 
clover in a single dav's work. We send the Double unless ordered Single. 



MANUFACTURED BY 



THE 



NEW YORK PLOW CO., 

55 Beekman Street, 



IsTE'V^ "SrORIC. 



1 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO.'S 
ADAMANT PLOWS. 



Hard Metal, but Kot Chilled, and Not Brittle. 



ADJUSTABLE BEAM. BALANCED CENTRAL DRAFT. 



Excelling In Scourii Oualllles LiiMness of Draft, anl Perfect Fitting Renalrs. 



The metal, of whicli they are made, is of uniform hardness — so hard that it cajst- 
NOT BE DRILLED OR FILED — SO FINE in GRAIN that it will polish like a mirror. The 
polished surface of the mold-board will not roughen any more than glass. Eust does 
not eat into it ; and when coated with rust it will re-polish in the ground in two min- 
utes as bright as silver. One mold- board of this metal will wear at least as long as 
three of steel. The hardness of this metal causes these plows to drmv much easier than 
ordinary cast-iron or steel plows. The metal is uniform, and not liable to soft spots, as 
chilled plows always are ; a piece suspended rings like a bell. 

We have alundant testimony that this metal will clear itself in soil tvheresome steel plows 
loill not work at all. 





FBONT VIEW OF ADAMANT PLOW. 



REAR VIEW OF APAMANT PLOW. 



A New Principle.— The beam is placed in the middle of the work, giving the 
plow a central draft, and avoiding all underneath and side friction. This is also 
desirable for one-horse plows, as it permits the horse to walk in the furrow. The beam 
being movable at the points of attachment, the central draft can always be kept per- 
fect. The adjusting is done at the heel of the beam, which can be moved from or to 
the land, as desired, which brings the work under exact control of the plowman. 
Even if the beam warps or springs, he can correct it. This adjustment is a great advan- 
tage in plowing among trees and through rows of corn. The beam is easy to replace if 
broken. The handles are straight, and can be easily replaced by the farmer. It is high 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



under the beam aud not liable to choke. The landside sloping inward relieves the 
pressure, and when in use, the plow glides through the soil with great ease, and with 
such steadiness, that wheu properly adjusted, a child might hold it. The adjustment 
of the IRON BEAM Pi-OW is made at the slotted clevis; both the wood and iron beam 
PLOWS, when properly adjusted, run so steady as to scarcely require holding at all. 





SHARE OF ADAMANT PLOWS. 



EOLLING COULTER. 



The slips, by being reversed when worn, restore the level and the land. 

Eeversible self-sharpening shares enable the farmer at all times to make his 
plow ruu level and true. 

The eiiect of a sharp point to a plowshare is to sharpen the wing also. These re- 
versible slip points sharpen themselves by being reversed, saving at least one-third the 
drait, as the plow does not require to be tipped up. 

The etiect of a sharp and level-bottom share is to make the bottom of furrow level, 
and to save draft by cutting instead of scraping with the edge of wing. 

These shares are so constructed that the point (which we call slip) can be detached 
from the main body of the share, into which it is fastened with a common cut nail 
driven in as a key, with the wedge of the nail driven up and down the share, which 
draws the slip up tight, and broken off top and bottom downwards. It can be readily 
driven out from the bottom with aiiothernail. This enables the plowman to turn it 
over at any time. 

These shares being always sharp do not require the hollow or dip which is neces' 
sary in the solid shares in order to make them penetrate when dull, and which not 
onfy requires more power, but more labor to hold the plow ; at first, to keep it from 
running IN, and when dull, to keep it fjom ruiming out. Every plowman will appre- 
ciate this. 

These shares also preserve the wing as the plow runs level, and the wing wears 
sharp instead of growing thick and dull, as they must do in all plows that do not run 
level. "Where the plowman uses the precaution to wear oue side of two or three slips 
before turning any of them, and thus preserves the correct lines, the wing of the share 
has a cutting edge as sharp as if ground on a grindstone. 

Reversing the slip also keeps it true on the landside corner. 

With sharp shares and level running plows, land is more thoroughly broken up, 
with a saving of labor and time, and with a uniformity of depth which is not possible 
with a solid share, consequently a larger yield of crops. 

The wings of these shares are wider, and thinner, and harder than usual, aud level 
on the bottom. 

By actual test we know that there is more service in oue of these Reversible 
Slip Shares with three extra Slips, than in eight solid shares, while the draft of the 
plow is reduced at least one-fifth, and the cost of shares about two-thirds. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



tii 



ADAMANT A. 

Two-Horse* 




This is a largk two-horse plow, suitable for both SOD and stubble ground, 
and for both SMOOTH and stony land. It is sufficiently strong for an ox team or for 
three horses. It makes a furrow 12 to 14 inches wide by 7 to 8 inches deep. Height 
nnderbeam, 17} inches. 

Its draft is about as light as that of the Pkekskill Plow — 19^ — which makes a 
furrow 4 inches narrower than Adamant A, and is known as an exceedingly light 
draft plow for two horses. 

It turns the furrow slice well over, pulverizes and loosens the soil, and covers 
weeds, manure, etc., in a manner that surprises a man using it the first time. It is a 
cheap plow to keep in repair, and saves at least one-fourth of the power requii^d to 
operate other plows. It catches in quick in stony soil. It has slip shares, as also do 
all sizes. The Coulter and Jointer are attached to standard, so as to be adjustable. 

Sent with wheel and coulter, unless otherwise ordered. The wheel is good 
on sod ground. A circular coulter is recommended for rooty or very stiff sward. 
The jointer or skim plow is desirable in burying clover, &c. ; it does not increase 
draft. The cross-brace is of wrought iron. 

Stubble molds sent on A and K, without extra charge, when so ordered, instead 
of regular molds. Stubble molds are 2 inches shorter and 1^ lower, and a little less 
curved in rear. 

The cutter share is better for stony ground than the coulter. 

We also make A and B with a special thick front standard, 20 inches high under 
beam, for choky lands in Virginia. &c., called Virginia Adamant. 
Weight, plain, 110 lbs.; cut, 10^ inches. 
Adamant K, left-hand, same size and price as A. 
N. B. — We always send right-hand plows, unless ordered left. 



IV 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



ADAMANT B. 

Ligflit Tvi^o-Horse. 




Adamant B is a very light draft two-horse plow (cau be drawn by one stout 
horse), and at the same time is strong enough for all land that is free from fast rocks. 
It is very light lo handle, and turns a very clean, flat furrow 13 by 6 inches. Height 
under beam, 16 inches It, is a plow that will give better satisfaction in the light 
lauds of Long Island, New Jersey, and elsewhere, than any steel plow whatever. 
Sent with wlieel nud coulter, uuless otherwise ordered. All of these plows only re- 
quire the proper adjustment of beam, coulter, traces and whiffletrees to do the work 
with the utmost possible ease to man and beast. The Coulter and Skim Plow are at- 
tached to standard as shown in cut of A. Weight, plain, 80 lbs. ; cat, 9^- inches. 

Adamant M, Left Hand, same size as B. 

Adamant T, Eight hand, size between A and B, same shape as B. 



ADAMANT C. 

Heavy One-Horse. 




The draft of this plow is about the same as that of Peekskill No. 19, but it does 
much more work, viz., making a furrow 5 to 6 inches deep, 11 to 12 inches wide, 
which is nearly as much work as ordinary two-horse plows do ; in fact, the in- 
creased ease of draft, on account of hard metal, shape, and steadiness, is very 
nearly a saving of 07ie-horse power. It runs so steadily that it can be held by a small 
boy, and does not fret the horse. With traces and whiftietrees the right length, 
and beam set to proper land, it ivill do the work. It is a surprise, doing so much work; 
at one trial 6i x 13 inches, in heavy, tough sod, draft only 450 lbs. With it, a man 
has a corn plow and breakiug-up plow in one. The horse walks in the furrow. 

Height under beam, 15^ inches ; weight, 66 lbs. ; cut, 9 inches. This plow has 
E. S. share also. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



ADAMANT E. 

liig^ht One-Horse. 




Weight, 54 lbs.; cut, 8| inclies; turus fiirrow 10 to 11 inches wide and 5 to 
6 inches deep. Height under beam, 16 inches. 



ADAMANT H. 

liig^ht One-Horse. 




Adamant H and E are more satisfactory than any of the cast-iron and steel 
PLOWS used in the southern states, as they will scour in the stickiest soils, have 
a very high standard, and are light and durable. They are also excellent corn 
plows for the northern states, making a good furrow without any choking or 
sticking in any soils. The central draft principle enables the horse to walk in the 
furrow, which is a great improvement on common one-horse plows with straiglit 
standard. Height under beam, 16 inches. H is also made with cut-off mold for cab- 
bage plowing. They both run very steady and light. Weight, 48 lbs. ; cut, 7 inches. 
They are also made with w rouglit standards and stationary side attached beams, 
when so desired. 



VI 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



ADAMANT L. 

Two-Horse Iron Seam. 




'J'his plow is very handsoiiie, aud it works as well as it looks. The adjustment of 
both land and pitch is done to perfection by a slotted clevis iu connectiou with a 
gauge bolt. It draws quite as easy, as steady, and makes about the same size furrow 
as Adamant A: the beam is abotit six inches shorter. The draft-rod prevents break- 
age of the beam, aud by its elasticity protects all parts of the plow from hreakage. 
We have made furrows with it 1.^x9 inches, 14 x 8 inches, 12 x 6 inches, running 
with great steadiness. Changes are made iu a moment, by adjusting the clevis. The 
standard is very high. It is exceedingly satisfactory in tough, heavy sod, or sticky 
soil, and is a perfect ])ulverizer in stubble ground. Weight, complete, 125 lbs. Sent 
without wheel and coulter, unless otherwise ordered. Height under beam, 17 inches. 
Weight, plain, 113 lbs.; cut 10 Inches. 

KEDUCED PRICES, SEPTEMBEE, 1878. 



Adamant H, Light One Horse 

E, Medium 

" C, Heavy 

'■ B, Light Two-Horse 

T, Medium " 

" A, Heavy '' 

'• M, Light " Left Hand .. 

K, Heavy " '• " .. 

'• L. Heavy Two-Horse, Iron Beam. 



Plain 
Plow. 



Plow with 
Wbeel. 



$5.00 
6.00 
7.50 
10,00 
11.00 
12.00 
10.00 
12.00 
11.00 



Plowwitli 
Coulter. 



$8.50 
11.00 
12.00 
13.00 
11.00 
13.00 
12.00 



$9.00 
11.50 
12.75 
14.00 
11.50 
14.00 
13.0O 



Plow witli 
Wheel & 
Coulter. 



$10.00 
12.00 
13.50 
15.00 
12.0U 
15.00 
14.00 



REPAIRS. 



No. PLOW. 




ft 


11 '-^ 


1 


heel 
arae. 

niter. 


S§3ft 

." S OS 


2 


6 

X! 


i 


43 


-2 


11 


i 








O 


03 


^ 




SSS 


s 


J 


2 


05 


cJas 


P? 


Adamant H . . . 


i 


.35 


8 






.. 


,75 


,35 


.30 


.30 1 1.25 


.30 


.6(1 


E... 


^ 


..50 


.60 


8 


.. 








1.00 


.40 


.30 


,30 1.25 


.30 


.75 


C... 


2 


.60 


.70 


.10 


.30 


.70 


1.00 


.50 


1.50 


.60 


.40 


.40 1.50 


.40 


.85 


B... 


24 


.65 


.80 


.12 


.30 


,70 


1.00 


.r.o 


2.00 


.70 


.50 


.50 i 1.75 


.40 1 1.00 


T ... 


n 


.70 


.90 


.12 


.30 


.70 


1.25 


,50 


2.-<:5 


.80 


.60 


.50 


2.00 


.50 1.25 


A... 


3" 


.HO 


1.00 


.14 


.30 


.70 


1.50 


,50 2.50 


1.00 


.60 


.60 


2.00 


.50 1.50 


M... 


24 


.65 


.80 


.12 


.30 


.70 


1.00 


,50 2.00 


.70 


.50 


.50 


1.75 


.40 ; 1.00 


K... 


3 


.80 


1.00 


.14 


.30 


.70 


1.50 


.50 2,50 


1.00 


.60 


.60 


2.00 


.50 1.50 


L... 


3 


.80 


1.00 1.14 


.30 


.70 


1.50 .50 1 2,50 


.cO 




.- 


... 


.50 1 3.00 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



vu 



Plain plow is without wheel and coulter. Plow complete includes wheel and 
coulter. We put skim plow in place of coulter on A, L and K, when ordered, without 
any extra charge. All plows have an extra slip. Extra long sod mold for A, and K, 
$3. Eolling circular coulter for B, A, L, M or K, $3. A, K, B and M are also made 
with EXTRA HIGH STANDARDS for trashy land, called Virginia Adamants. A and K 
are made with higher molds and arranged for three horses, $1.50 extra. Truck mold 
for H, ,50 cts. All of the ahove plows have adjustable beams. We also have a cab- 
bage PLOW, $5.00; this metal is very desirable in garden soil. 

All repairs ground ready for use. 

Adamant sled shoes ground, 5 cents per lb. These have the same advantage 
over common iron sled shoes as to saving of friction. 





These cuts show the bottom line of a solid point and a slip share plow, the former 
requiring a hollow under the point to compensate for the rounding up of the poiut, 
which in the slip share is sharpened by turning over. 




ONE METHOD OF PLOWING WITH ADAMANT PLOWS. 



viii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



UNSOIilCITED. 

" Broadway, Warren Co., N. J., September 5, 1878, 
" i have thoroughly tested the Adamant plow with reversible slip shares. I have 
broken up twenty-five acres of sod and fallow, also plowed eight acres of corn, with the 
one shai-e and eight slips (inclnding the one on the share), whicb I have sent you. My 
soil has more or less grit, part is very gravelly and fast undergrouncl stone, which is 
hard to jilow in dry time. I have tried other improved plows this summer, but prefer 
the Adamant. N. WARNE." 

This share and slips are to be seen at our office. — N. Y. P. Co. 



EXPERIENCES. 

" Westbury, L. I., 4th mo., 5, 1878. 

" At thy request I herewith give thee an account of the working of the plow. I 
have used the Adamant A in a sod, a part of the field generally unscourable with a 
cast-iron plow of ordinary construction, but with the Adamantine I saw no difference 
in this sticky soil or in tlie more sandy places, clearing itself perfectly all the time, and 
I am highly pleased with its working in every respect. In draft, very easy, consider- 
ing the depth and breadth of furrow, also easy for the holder. 

" I have had a great many different kinds of plows in my time, but I think I never 
had one so much to my liking as this. Eespectfully, WM. P. TITUS. 

"P. S. — I did not need a two-horse plow when I bought this, but I liked the looks 
of it 80 well that I could not go away -without it." 



"Office American Agriculturist, 
" New York, May 7, 1878. 
" I promised to let you know how the Adamantplow works. I tried it in wet sticky 
clay where I was opening some drains, and it turned a perfectly clean furrow even in 
that soil without any adhering to the mold-board. I don't think it would clog in any 
soil ; it draws very easily and handles very nicely. It is certainly the best plow I have 
used. The arrangement for adjusting the line of draft and width of furrow works very 
■well. I am very, very much pleased with it. 

"Yours, very truly, H.STEWART, 

" Assistant Editor Ammcan Agriculturist." 



" Closter, N. J., June 12th, 1878. 
" I have been using the share with reversible point for all the plowing I have done 
this season, with great satisfaction. My soil is a sharp, gravelly loam which cuts 
away plowshares at a great rate, so that a share is virtually ruined in half a day's 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



plowing sometimes. We wear them longer of course, bnt add not a little to the labor 
of the horses; your one share has worn up to this time, wearing out several slips and 
the whole share is still sharp and sound. It has struck heavy stones repeatedly, and 
the beam has been carried away once by such a collision, but the share is all right. 
It is an invaluable ' institution.' Truly Yours, 

"M. C. WELD." 



" Hopewell, N. J., June Ist, 1878. 
'* I cannot speak too highly of the plow (Adamant B) I bought of you this spring ; 
it far exceeds my expectations. I have tried it in both sod and stubble, and find it to 
be the easiest and nicest working plow I have ever used. A son of mine, who would 
hardly have managed another plow, did the most of my plowing in the very best 
manner. One of my neighbors borrowed it to plow a tough sod very heavily manured, 
and the way it turned every particle of grass and manure under, entirely out of sight, 
was surprising. The Adamants are certainly superior to any plows ever made. The 
centre draft and reversible points are the greatest improvements ever made in plows. 
The better a farmer plows and pulverizes his soil, the better his crops will be ; there- 
fore, I believe it will pay them to lay aside their old-style plows and iise the Ada- 
mants. ' ASHER H. SNOOK." 



" Hopewell, N. J., June 6tb, 1878. 
"The pair of Adamant Plows I bought of you one year ago last March, give the 
best of satisfaction ; I used them all last season, have done all my plowing with them 
this spring, and find them to be the best plows I have ever used. I can do one-third 
more work with them, with the same amount of labor for the team, than any plow I 
have seen or used. They are easy to handle ; any boy can manage them ; they are so 
well balanced that they need no guiding ; they turn the sod and manure well under, 
and thoroughly pulverize the soil, leaving it so mellow that it saves miich labor in 
harrowing. Last season I used three plows in plowing afield of sod for corn — the two 

Adamants and one . I coiild see a difference in the corn the whole season ; 

where I used the Adamants, the crop was considerably the best ; it was also less labor 
to work. I can heartily recommend them to any farmer wanting a good plow. What 
they will save in horse-flesh and repairs will soon pay for a plow. The reversible slip 
shares, I think, are a wonderful improvement ; by using them you not only save in 
cost for shares, but have a sharp and level running plow all the time. If I could not 
get others like them, I would not take five times for them what they cost me. 

",TOHN S. VANDYKE." 



"Montana, Warren Co., N. J., May 25th, 1878. 
" I have fully tested your Adamant Plow with the reversible point, and take pleasure 
in recommending them to the farmers of this community for good work, lightness of 
draft, easy on plowman, save fifty per cent, on repairs. I plowed ten acres, wore out 
two points, and commenced on a third one, while the share is not more than one-half 
worn out. My ground is a greasy, sticky, and stony soil, very difiBcult to get a plow 
to scour, but the Adamant does scour in it without difficulty. 

" JAMES P. KENT." 



THE NEW YORK PLOW 00., 55 BEEKMAIST ST. 



WROUGHT BEAM DOUBLE MOLD PLOW. 

WITH SHOE. 




For Cultivating and Ridging or Hilling Corn, Potatoes, &c. 

Holds easy, runs, steady, and is not liable to clog. Works different widths of rows 
by using long and short wings. The centre piece increases the height of the mold- 
board when desired. 

In the cultivation of the potato, hand hoeing can he entirely dispensed with. Even 
quack-grass, however troublesome, can be subdued without the use of the hoe, and 
a large crop of potatoes realized by pursuing the following course, which is no exper- 
iment, but an established method, which is now being generally adopted by farmers 
who prefer this way to any other, believing that a tetter crop can thus be realized 
with less labor. 

After the ground is plowed and thoroughly harrowed, let the furrows be made 
deep and of as equal distance apart as possible, and when the potatoes first make 
their appearance, or when they are one or two inches high, use the double-mold plow 
arranged wide enougli, and, if necessary, with the centre-piece in, to bury the potatoes 
entirely under by passing once between the rows ; but if the sod is very stiff and un- 
rotted, it may be necessary to use an ordinary two-horse plow, turning one furrow on 
the top of each row of potatoes, then with the harrow drag over the same way (no 
danger of injuring the potatoes), which leave the ground freshly plowed and har- 
rowed, and very soon the potatoes will again make their appearance, free from grass, 
and with as much ground on the hill as is necessary. Then cross-plow with the dou- 
ble-mold plow as often as desirable, keeping the ground well stirred, and a large crop 
of potatoes will be the result. 

Where potatoes are planted in drills, the same course is pursued in burying them 
under when they first make their appearance above the ground, and then dragging; 
after which an ordinary corn-plow is run as near the row as convenient, throwing 
the ground from the row; or a cuU.ivator may be used for this purpose. The double- 
mold plow is afterwards used for throwing the ground toward the row. Let this 
operation be repeated, and the result will be satisfactory. 

IT WILL SAVE ITS COST BVT A FEW DAYS' USE. 

Price, complete , $8 00 

Extra shares, 50 cents. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



XI 



THE NEW YORK CORN AND SEED PLANTER. 




One man and a horse can plant from seven to ten acres of corn in a day with 
the planter, at a cost of from $3.50 to $5, while to plant the same by hand would cost 
$25 at least. 

This Planter, at one peockss, opeks its furrow, gauges, drops, covers the 
seeds and rolls them down. Also measures and marks off tlf distance for the 
next ROW or drill co be planted. 

It WILL PLANT ALL KINDS of SEEDS, from corn. beaiis, peas, etc., to the smallest 
KINDS of GARDEN SEEDS, in HILLS or DRILLS, at ANY DISTANCE between the seeds or 
hills, from one inch to seventy-two inches. Also measures the quantity of seeds to 
the hill, drill, or acre. 

Any of these changes may be made in five minutes' time to adapt it to the 
work required, and the seeding action may be instantly thrown out of gear 
and stopped in turning at head-lands, or for moving from tield to field. By being- 
careful about throwing out of and in gear, at the end of the rows, the hills may be 
made to row both way.s. 

Recent improvements have increased its strength and quality of workmanship. 



Price $20 00 



xii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



GARDEN ROLLER. 



Weights Keep Handle Erect. 




2 Sec, 71 inch face, 15 i 


1 " 12 


20 


1 " 20 


20 


2 " 12 


20 


3 " 12 


20 


1 " 12 


24 


2 " 12 


• 24 


1 " 12 


28 


2 •• 12 


•28 


3 " 12 


28 



face, 15 inclies diameter, with weights about 125 lbs. 

" 140 « 

" 220 « 

" . " " 300 " 

«' 450 " 

" 200 " 

" " " 400 " 

" 250 " 

" 500 " 

" 700 " 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xiii 



WOOD FRAME JERSEY CULTIVATOR. 




It is made with wrougbt-iron standard, polished reversible steel plates, and ad- 
justable draft-rod. It is light to handle, draws steady, easy for the horse, and loosens 
and pulverizes the soil. 



Weight 48 lbs. 



Price $6 00 



WROUGHT-IRON FRAME JERSEY CULTIVATOR. 




It is made in a thoroughly workmanlike manner, of the very best materials, is 
strong, very durable, and superior to the wood frame, as it is not liable to clog iu fou] 
or weedy ground. 



Weight 46 lbs. 



Price |7 00 



XIV 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 




SO^SSSKSK.--*.-*. 



THE FIELD ROLLER 

Is a valuable machine for crushing sods and lumps remaining after the harrow has 
passed, pressing down stones, and rendering the field smooth for the mowing-machine, 
&c. By pressing the earth close about the seed, a more sure and quick germination 
is effected. This iron roller is the most approved kind, as it clears better and is more 
durable than the wooden roller. The stone box is convenient for taking off loose 
stones. By rolling early in the Spring, the heaving effect of frost is repressed. 



3 Se 


c, 12 inch 


face 


i>y 


20 inche 


4 " 


12 


" 




20 


5 " 


12 


'• 




20 


4 " 


12 






24 


5 " 


12 


" 




24 


6 " 


12 


" 




24 


4 " 


12 


.i 




28 


5 " 


12 


u 




28 


6 '■ 


12 


" 




28 


4 " 


12 


•• 




36 


5 '■ 


12 


" 




36 


6 " 


12 


a 




36 



lbs. 



650 

750 

850 

1,000 

1,200 

950 

1,150 

1,350 

1,400 

1,700 

2,000 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xv 



THE NISHWITZ HARROW. 




The Disk Harrow is the ouly harrow fit for sod and the best in use to prepare 
laud for seeding. It is a thorough cultivator, which implies pulverization of soil and 
intermixture of fertilizers, and cultivates before the crop is put in, vrhich is the best 
time to do it. 

It consists of a series of revolving, sharp-edged, circular, concave disks, set at 
such an angle in relation to the line of draft, that they fully pulverize the soil by cut- 
ting, lifting, and turning it over in fine, small furrows. The frame consists of two 
pieces of wood, hinged together in front, which are secured at any desirable distance 
apart by means of a cross-bar, bolted across the centre of the frame. To this cross- 
bar is attached a comfortable spring seat. For purposes of storing or transportation, 
the frame can be folded together. It is extremely simple in construction, and not 
liable to get out of order. 

The dislcs are now held on hy journals headed, and not ly scrapers only, as formerly 
made. This is a great improvement, saving friction and wear; the wearing parts being 
pins and washers are replaced at very small cost* 

The advantage of this ^ shaped harrow, with the disks following each other 
over those, like those where disks are arranged nearly on a line, is, that in crossing 
the furrows they do not all strike at once, and therefore draw more uniformly. The 
steel journals, which are readily replaced when worn, are the very cheapest kind of 
journals to keep in repair, though not looking so durable as larger cast-iron axles, and 
they are not so liable to clog in sticky soils. The journals can be replaced by any 
blacksmith. The disks last a long time, and, being concave, are not liable to break. 

By means of a scraper, against which the concave circular disk or tooth revolves, 
it is kept clean or scoured in the most adhesive soils. 

It will not catch weeds, stubble, coarse manure, or roots, and clog up like a com- 
mon harrow or cultivator, but will cut and mix them with the soil. 



XVI 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



It will not turn ap the sod when using it on sward land. 

It will thoroughly prepare land for the seed drill. 

It will work on wet land where no other implement will, and save much valuable 
time in putting crops in the ground in proper season. 

It will more than save its cost in preparing five acres of sward land for corn. 

It will produce a better crop, by thoroughly loosening and mixing the soil. 

It will actually save plowing in many instances. 

Land plowed in the Fall can be prepared for crops in the Spring without re- 
plowing. 

It is the best implement for pulverizing newly-broken land. 

It is just the thing for summer-fallowing land; it will work up the soil, and is 
sure to kill all weeds. 

It is a good clod-crusher. 

Most hnportant of all, in putting in grain, covering it well, leaving it in little 
drills, and at the proper depth for germination. 

For cross cultivating prairie sod, those who use them say they save $1 per acre in 
one cultivation. 

The tongue is desirable on large fields, and is useful when cultivating corn or 
grapes, which is done by removing the forward disk so as to straddle the rows, for 
Avhich this harrow is very highly recommended ; while the clevis without tongue is 
desirable in small fields. 

Nos. 3 and 4 Harrows are very large, with 15-inch disks, used with three or four 
horses, principally for general cultivation on the largest farms, and on the Western 
prairies, in place of second sowing, to cut up the prairie sods, a,nd on the Southern 
plantations as a gang plow, where it does the work of many plows, saving much time 
and expense. 

Foe Flax Ground. — One agent sold over one himdred in the flax regions of In- 
diana in one season. 

Land infested with corn or cotton stalks, grass, clods, or roots, is by the use of 
this harrow nicely prepared for cultivation. The harrow is adjustable both for width 
and depth of its track. 

For harrowing between rows of sugar cane they are exceedingly satisfactory. 



Size. 


Horses required 
to operate it. 


Numl)er of 
Disks. 


Diameter of 
Disks. 


Weight 
Complete. 


No. 1 
" 2 
" 3 
it 4 


2 

2 

3 or 4 

4 


11 
13 
11 
13 


11 in. 
11 in. 
15 ill. 
15 in. 


200 lbs. 
225 " 
400 " 
450 " 



The No. 1 (11 disks) Harrow without pole, is the most popular size for all general 
purposes, and is the size we sell the most of, and always send unless specially ordered 
otherwise. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xvii 



THE COPPER STEIP FEED CUTTER. 




This is umloubtedly the easiest cutter by hacd power, because it has excellent 
uiomeutum without beiug speeded up. The 5^, 8, 9, will cut stalks as well as hay 
about two inches in length, and accomplish more than can be done by hand power on 
anj' other principle. These sizes can also be run by power if desired. 

By means of cutting against flanges, instead of a roller, it is made perfectly self- 
feeding, and a large volume of feed is allowed to pass the knives without clogging 
the machine. 

These flanges enable the smallest sized machines to cut the largest corn-stalks as 
easily as hay or straw, whereas a roller (raw-hide or other), by choking up the throat, 
passes but a small depth of feed and clogs. 

As the machine is turned the flanged cylinder and knife grasp the feed, draw it 
forward, and cut it oif as the two meet; cutting a volume of feed three to six inches 
deep, of uniform length without clogging, and without the friction that arises from 
the use of a multitude of gear wheels. 

All parts of the machines are easily and cheaply replaced by the farmer, and the 
knives and coppers are made so that, if they are ever broken or worn out, they can for 
a few cents each be duplicated and put on at home. 

The Copper does not dull the Knives, and is Durable. 

We make a variety of sizes from $9 to $35. Descriptive circular sent on ap- 
plication. 



THE BEST LENGTH TO CUT FEED. 

On this subject the Editor of the American Agriculturist, December number, 1865, 
page 371, says : 

" It is not necessary to cut corn-stalks as short as some have recommended. For 
fourteen years the writer has been accustomed to cut all his corn-stalks, and for sever- 
al years some were cut about half an inch long, though, for the most part, two inches 
Mas the usual length. Neat cattle and horses will eat them quite as well when cut 
two inches long as if half an inch long. And it is much safer to cut them two inches 
long than half an inch, because, when short, hard pieces are often crowded endwise be- 
tween the teeth of animals, will wound the gums, making the mouth so sore that ani- 
mals sometimes will sufl'er with hunger before they will venture to eat cut stalks. 
Moreover it is highly probable that these thin, short, flinty edges injure the intestines," 



xviii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 

In the Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture for 1866, page 280, 
the Commissioner says : 

" A large number of devices for chafiSng coarse fodder have been patented, but 
the number of cutters that are likely to come into general use, or give satisfaction, is 
exceedingJy small. Many good machines are too complicated for common farmers and 
their laborers, who possess only ordinary ability to keep machinery in running order, 
and to operate such implements with skill and efficiency. 

"Some manufacturers have erred seriously in constructing foddei' cutters, by not under- 
standing ivhat is required of a machine for cutting stalks, straw and hay. Men who have 
a correct understanding of the management of domestic animals, and of preparing 
their food, know that the fodder cutter that cuts hay or straw finest or shortest is by 
no means the most effective cutter. Experience proves that fodder digests much bet- 
ter after being macerated by the teeth of animals than when it is reduced so fine by a 
straw-cutter that they swallow it without iirst crushing it between their teeth. The 
stalks of Indian corn or sorghum should never be cut less than two inches long." 

THE BURRALL CORN SHELLER OF 1878. 




Wrought Shafts. Right-Hand. 

This Shelter Separates the Cobs from the 
Shelled Corn. 

It has wooden (instead of iron) legs, 
which are not liable to break, and are 
more easily repaired when broken. 



IMPROVEMENTS FOR 1878. 

SKVEfiAL NEW PATENTS APPLIED FOE. 

Open front hopper makes it right-handed. Wrought Shafts. (Cast shafts always 
break.; Excellent improved spring. Runs smooth and easy. Longer ie^s, which make 
sheller several inches higher than formerly. Flat balance ivheel; can use belt, if de- 
sired. 

The swell at the throat in combination with the patented spring-plate admits 
larger ears without clogging, and without scraping or breaking the cob. It shells 
clean. The gearing has been changed, making it stronger, and causing it to turn very 
much easier than any other sheller in the market, and much easier than those that we 
made last year. The spreading of the feet causes it to stand entirely firm, and the in- 
creased weight adds much to its durability. 

These improvements make it entirely satisfactory for every section of this coun- 
try and other countries. 



Weight 125 lbs. 



Price $8 00 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xix 



NEW ENGLAND ROOT CUTTER AND TEARER. 



The cnt represents a machine 
which every farmer should have. 

It is strong and durable, very 
simple in its construction, and not 
liable to get out of order. 

The cylinder or cutting appa- 
ratus is composed of a nnuiber 
of hooked or flat curved teeth, 
which, in revolving, pass between 
stationary knives, and catch hold 
and tear to pieces the roots, etc., 
in small sections for safety. 

The hopper holds about a bush- 
el of turnips, which can be cut in 
one minute. 

With this machine Pumpkins, 
Turnips, Beets, Carrots, etc., can 
be cut and fed to Horses, Cattle, 
Sheep and Calves, without danger 
of choking. 

Weight 120 lbs. 

Price $12 00 




ENDLESS CHAIN DOG POWER. 



This power is intended principally for 
dairy purposes, but can be made use of 
wherever a light and portable power is 
desired. 

The principle of construction is ma- 
terially the same as that of the large rail- 
way powers, with such modifications, 
diminution of friction, etc., as are need- 
ed to fit it to be moved by small animals. 
A dog, sheep or goat is sufficient to 
work it. The wheels are larger than in 
other dog powers, and are of iron instead 
of wood. This power runs with less fric- 
tion, and is more diirable than any other. 
The floor is matched and grooved, which 
dispenses with the clumsy buttons, which 

are liable to break and come off. 'J'he 

lever is adjustable, so that the churn can be placed in any position. It is not desir- 
able to have the churn under the dog's mouth. 
It has also a belt wheel. 

It is three feet and nine inches high, five feet and nine inches long, and two feet 
wide ; weighs 110 lbs. 

Price, complete ,,,.,, $30 00 




XX THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



RAILWAY HORSE POWER. 




i^^ 



This power, Ellis Patent, we have proven by actual tests, gives more power with 
same elevation and same weight of animals than any other horse-power yet invented. 

The seven recent patent claims are very important. It has a ratchet gear instead 
of the common spur gear, witli the advantage of increased firmness ; the uniform 
length and width of lags, in connection with the ratchet gear, gives steadiness and 
firmness to the whole track, which is not the case with spur gear. The new arrange- 
ment for oiling the I'ods on which the carrying wheels revolve, is a labor-saving fea- 
ture. These improvements are new, and they reduce the friction, and therefore increase 
the driving power to an extent hitherto unknown in any kind of animal power. 

One-horse power, with patent governor, belt, wrench, oil-can and extras $100 00 

Two " " " '^ " " •' 150 00 

Three " " " " " " '• 200 00 



PLOWS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 

For Root Cutting we have a Steel Plow witli steel share, that can be gi'ound 
to a sharp edge, $15 00 ; Wheel and Coulter, |3 00 ; Circular Coulter, $4 00. 

For very Stony Ground, where better plows are not profitable to use, short 
and catching quick, Rough and Ready, No. 2^, Cast Beam, $7 00 ; Rough and Ready, 
Wrought Beam, |9 00. 

Side Hill or Swivel Plows, Leveler Wood Beam, No. 2 $8 00 

" " " " " " " No. 3 10 00 

" '' " " Automatic Iron Beam, with Coulter 12 00 

" " " " Wrought Beam, without Coulter 9 00 

" " " " One-Horse, also cheaper qualities. 

Double-Mold Plows for Ridging, Hilling and Cultivating Corn, Potatoes, &g,, 

Wrought Beam 8 00 

" " " Wood Beam 4 00 

Subsoil Plows, Deep Trenching Plows for Asparagus, Ditching, &c., Road Plows, 
Garden or Hand Plows, Potato Diggers ; Cast-iron Plows in infinite variety from 
$1 50 upward. 

MACHINES FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 

Riding Hay Rakes, Cider Mills, Lard Presses, Wine Presses, Farmers' Boilers, Ice 
Crushers, Horse Radish Graters, Seed Drills, Grain Drills, Corn Planters, Garden, 
Field and Road Rollers, Lawn Mowers, Horse Powers, Threshers and Cleaners, Wind- 
mills for Pumping, &c., Fanning Mills, Dog Powers, Corn Shellers, Road Scrapers, 
Root Cutters, Wheelbarrows, Water Drawers, Stable Furniture, Wagon Jacks, Hand 
Cultivators, Cultivator and Pulverizer Combined. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



XXI 




We ask dealers and cultivators of the soil to examine carefully the peculiarities in 
constructiou of the Champion Hoe in all of its varieties, including the Centennial 
Double Blade, the Centennial Common, the Centennial Planter's and the Centennial 
Garden, of which we represent a full line, decide on their merits, whether our claims to 
superiority over all others in use are or are not well founded. 

By a uew process our steel is all rolled heavier in the shank and tapering towards 
the edge, giving strength where most needed and symmetry of form. 

The Champion Hoe is the common lioe radically improved. For the first time the 
tuhular principle is applied to the Hoe, giving immense strength without unnecessary 
weight of metal, both to the large and small blades. The entire implement, including 
the socket or ferule, is made of a single piece of the iest crucible steel, so that the usual 
difficulty of the shank getting loose is entirely obviated. TIius we combine great 
strength with lightness, utility and durability. 

The Centennial Hoe combines the leading principle of the Champion Hoe with 
other marked improvements. The ferule is cut, like the Champion, from the same 
piece of steel of which the hoe is formed, completing it for the handle without weld or 
rivet; there is, therefore, nothing to give way. The steel is of the best quality — of 
trowel temper and rolled by a new process — strong in shank and tapering towards the 
edge, giving the greatest strength where most required. In cutting out the ferule 
the perforation is made where the earth always collects and adheres, thereby remov- 



xxii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 



ing a great inconvenience and preventing clogging nest to the handle. Of the Cen- 

tenuial we make 

FOUK LEADING VARIETIES. 

First. — THE TWO-BLADED CENTENNIAL (FigS. 7, 8, 9). 

Which comprises two sizes, six inch and seven inch. This hoe is admired by all 
who have used it, for the ease and facility with which the operator can execute all 
kinds of hoeing in farming, (jardemng or in the nursery, the sides as well as the ends 
being brought readily into use. The perforation prevents the adhesion of the soil. 

Second. — the planter's hoe (Figs. 1 and 12). 

Six, seven and eight-inch blade. 

This hoe is heavi/, strong and made of the best steel, which takes a good cutting 
edge ; warranted to the dealers and to the purchaser. 

Third. — the single blade centennial hoe (Fig. 2). 

Six-inch and seven-inch blades, warranted of the best material and workmanship. 

Fourth. — THE centennial garden hoe (Figs. 4 and 11). 

A glance at this hoe will satisfy the gardener or the dealer that it is incomparably 
the best article of the kind in use. There are two varieties, one with a forked, the 
other with a pointed end. 

N. B. — All of our hoes are of the same kind of steel, and that of the best quality ; all 
are rolled to order, tapering towards the edge, giving strength and perfection of form. 
All are warranted. All of them have been carefully perfected, and all objections and 
defects suggested by practical men removed. 



GARDEN WEEDER 




The simplicity, cheapness, and practical utility of this weeder places it ahead of 
all the hand cultivators. It will pay for itself, in the saving of labor, several times 
over in a year. 

The frame is of wrought iron, light, strong, has the parallel adjustment, can be 
readily opened and closed as desired, also has the same style of slotted teeth as the 
one-horse cultivator. 

The handles are inserted in sockets, and can be 'easily taken out, making it very 
compact for shipment. 



THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xxiii 



THE JOHNSON 

PARALLEL EXPANBIN& CULTIVATORS M PULVERIZERS, 



NEW AND IMPORTANT INVENTION. 



MAJSrUFACTURED BY 

THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 

55 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. 



ONE-HORSE CULTIVATOR 




The frame consists of a centre Learn and side wings to wliicli the teeth are attach- 
ed. The -wings are hinged to the beam, so that they saving back and forth, parallel 
with the beam, narrowing or widening as the space requires, keeping the teeth al- 
ways in the same line of draft. Either side wing can be moved independent of the 
other, back or forward, or one back and the other forward, the teeth then being in 
line. The wings are held in position by means of two draw braces, one end of which 
is attached to the wings, the other to the centre beam, changed at pleasure, thus va- 
rying the width as the cultivation requires. For cultivating in very narrow spaces, 
move one wing forward and the other backward as much as required, and remove the 
front tooth. 

It is thus adapted to the cultivation of corn, potatoes, beans, cotton, tobacco, tur- 
nips and other growing plants. It is also peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of nur- 
series and orange groves, which require shallow cultivation. The teeth being slotted 
and curved with sharp cutting edges they cut the weeds and grass, and thoroughly 
break up and pulverize the soil in one operation, and without endangering the roots. 
The wheel regulates the depth for shallow or deep cultivation. 



xxiv THE KEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 

TWO-HORSE PARALLEL EXPANDING PULVER- 
IZER OR GANG PLOW. 




This is made ou the same parallel fokliiig principle as the one-horse cultivator, 
with extra side-beams and teeth ; and with side-wheels to regulate the depth. The 
wheels are secured to the side-wings, and open and close with the frame. It is easily 
adjusted to any desired Avidth. 

Although called a pulverizer for convenience, it is, in fact, a neiv implement, per- 
forming, in most cases, the work both of a Gang Plow and a Cultivator, and doing a 
larger amount of work in much greater perfection than either the Gang Plow or old- 
fashioned Cultivator, or both combined. 

For the work accomplished it is of remarkably easy draft. It is readily adjusted 
for running near the surface of the ground, cutting and destroying every weed and 
thistle ; or for entering the ground to the depth desired for piilverizing. It works up 
and pulverizes the soil to a greater degree of perfection than any other implement 
known to the cultivator of the ground. 

It can be readily folded into a small compass for shipping or storing. 

These implements all have slotted teeth which, in shallow cultivation, move the 
weeds from their bed, and in deep cultivation throughly pulverize the soil. They are 
all well protected by patents. 

One-Horse Cultivator $8 00 

One-Horse Ctiltivator with Hiller 11 00 

Hand Weeder 4 50 

Two-Horse Pulverizer 20 00 

Extra Teeth for One Horse, per set 2 00 

Extra Teeth for Two Horses, per set ■. 5 00 



Accurate Chemical Analysis of COALS, Metai.S, Ores, FERTI- 
LIZERS, Soaps, Waters, etc., made by FRANCIS M. ROGERS, 

Analytical Chemist, 95 Liberty Street, New York. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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